If you have the misfortune of having to deal with any particularly offensive American jackasses in the very near future, I may have chanced upon the reason: an “Uncover Vancouver” advertisement from our own tourism agency, Tourism Vancouver, in the prized lede position on the especially poisonous American right-wing fringe website, The Drudge Report.
The low points of the hyper-popular, 675 million-hits-a-month noise machine have been many. It was the first to post the photo of Obama in “muslim garb”, the first to report on Prince Harry’s deployment to Afghanistan (despite a media blackout for obvious security reasons), and the wind beneath the wings of the abysmal Swift Boat Veterans For Truth (the group that claimed Vietnam war veteran John Kerry was a lying coward and probably a French woman).
Think PerezHilton.com but meaner, dumber, and with the ability to influence global media coverage. Even Fox News blowhard Bill O’Reilly called Matt Drudge (the founder/editor) a “threat to democracy”, and that’s saying something!
I understand Tourism Vancouver needs to fulfill its mandate and get every walking wallet they can from around the world to sleep in our hotel beds and dine in our restaurants regardless of their ethical, moral, or political persuasions (it’s a big, crazy world, and Drudge is one of its busiest outposts), but surely even a widely cast net can draw the line at supporting what MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann famously called “an idiot with a modem”.
I’m just sayin’…
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I thought maybe the Drudge Report ad space was sold through a network, but by the looks of it, placement is bought through these guys: http://www.intermarkets.net/advertisers/mediaKit/Portfolio/drudgeReportV1.html
Meaning, this is not by chance. Someone over at Tourism Vancouver thought this would be a smart place to place ads for the city. Oddly enough the ads dont feel very ‘Vancouver-esque’. Not that we want to see the same old out-doorsy stuff selling our city, but on first glance, these dont look like they are selling Vancouver.
Bad campaign strategy all around.
@mrstephenbeck
Placing that ad on one of the more popular websites on the internet provides excellent exposure. “Liberals” spend hours on right wing sites to feed their craving for inner hissy fits. As a result, this ad will be seen by a wide range of demographics.
Fortunately, effective advertising is rarely about seeking a ‘wide range of demographics’ except in the case of global brands that have no real target demos (ie. Coke). Particularly online, advertising is targeted, which means advertisers can attract consumers that fit specific criteria (i.e. location, affluence, interests, etc.). Unfortunately the demo that Drudge Report attracts is not a great one – and no, its not equally liberal/conservative. In fact, the site is regularly bashed by liberal media for promoting negative and inaccurate contexts. Quantcast lists their viewership as mostly watching Fox News and visiting Anncoulter.com (http://www.quantcast.com/drudgereport.com)
What Tourism Vancouver should be doing with their media spend is putting it towards online destinations and media sites that promote the same values that they use to brand the city – health, wellness, outdoors, culture, culinary scene, etc – likely the same stuff as most cities, but still far more suitable than Drudge Report.
@mrstephenbeck
@mrstephenbeck, I couldn’t agree more, but who knows, maybe the person in charge of the ad buy at TV believes Adam & Eve rode to church on a stegasaurus and that Barack Obama is a Sino-Muslim fifth columnist (and assumes the rest of the city does too).
“no, its not equally liberal/conservative. ”
Never said it was, my fact checking cuz.
Agree with your last paragraph, Stephen; good points.
Scary thought, isnt it!?
Impossible. Have you seen a stegosaurus? Saddle technology was not yet up to the task (except in Atlantis).
It’s doubtful. I know a few people who work at TV and they’re all sweethearts of the most adorable kind.
Hi folks – Tourism Vancouver here. Until we saw this post we had no idea our ad was being shown on that particular website. This particular ad campaign is being handled by a local ad company who is displaying ads on a network of websites. It was unknown to us that this site was part of that network, and we have requested that the ad be pulled immediately.
Tourism Vancouver is a non-partisan organization, and we only advertise on websites that share our policy of being welcoming to everyone. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
Good to see that Tourism Van is monitoring the web for this. Glad to see the ad is getting pulled down from Drudge! Damn network buys! I knew it! 😉
@mrstephenbeck