New Orleans tourism ad pulled over UK slight

0

In the wake (no pun intended) of the BP oil spill, the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau put out a series of tourism ads running in Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Memphis, and Austin. The campaign seeking to draw tourists to New Orleans has been pulled, following the publication of an article that characterized it as “anti-British.”


The TV effort features the tag, “This isn’t the first time we’ve survived the British,” a reference to the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812, and the BP oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico.

The ad also prominently features the French Quarter statue of Andrew Jackson, who successfully led troops against the British in the War of 1812.

The $5 million campaign was funded by the New Orleans CVB’s share a $15 million tourism check given to the State of Louisiana by BP last month, according to CBS.

On 6/16, The UK Guardian poked fun at the campaign, calling it a “$5 million anti-British campaign” and pointing out the irony that it had been funded with BP money. By Thursday night, the New Orleans CVB had decided to pull the ad, New Orleans CBS affiliate WWL-TV reported.

“You don’t want to do something that’s making some folks uncomfortable,” New Orleans CVB CEO officer Steve Perry told WWL. “So we decided we had so many other good ones, we’ll just go with those.”