" ...Mr. Thompson was particularly galled by an ad that shows a man preventing a pregnant woman from getting into a taxi because another man had been waiting longer. The first man tells the woman, who appears to be his partner, "To be fair, honey, he was here first," and the caption below the photo reads, "Toronto. Nothing like New York. Except for the Theatre."
"Any male in Toronto would have stood aside and offered the taxi, even if they were there first," said Mr. Thompson, who missed the irony of the ad: that Torontonians are ridiculously polite in contrast to New Yorkers, yet their city still offers top-notch theatre."
(Source - Globeandmail.com, Jan 27) More here.
Now, I think the people who are getting all hyper about this are not the target market. The target market for this campaign is (in my opinion of course), urban Americans, within driving distance from the border who are affluent and value things like culture, the arts and are slightly left leaning. This also includes a gay demographic fitting the above mentioned traits. These people have money to spend on weekend trips and the theatre and are interested in seeing what we have up here in Hogtown. The ads mock our polite nature with a tongue in cheek reference to it, which isn't a bad thing. When people come to TO they find good food, some theatre and other attractions with a supposedly nicer feel (don't mention that to Jane Creba's family though).
Ultimately, while we navel gaze and get all red in the face defending / deploring this campaign, I guess the truth will be in the tourist rates. Because at the end of the day, advertising is about changing behavior and the behavior that should come from this campaign is more tourists and more tickets / hotel rooms sold.
So, while we wait to see if this makes a difference in tourism rates, lets remember that Rome wasn't built in a day and tourism won't bounce back overnight.
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