Queensland tourism: grass is greener thanks to floods
An ad for Queensland’s tourism body claims that a good thing about the recent floods is that they have made the “grass greener” for would-be holidaymakers.
In the spot, which features Underbelly actors Gyton Grantley and Ryan Johnson, the dialogue reads: “For years, people have been holidaying in Queensland because they think the grass is greener. Well, this year, thanks to the floods, it really is.”
The ad has attracted criticism, with Paul Murray calling the spot “inappropriate” on his show Paul Murray Live last night.
However, according to the tourism body, the ad, which has been on air for a week nationwide, has not attracted criticism from the public.
Tourism Queensland’s executive director of marketing Steve McRoberts told Mumbrella that the media had done a good job of getting the message across that 70% of the region had been underwater, and now there was a need to fix the perception that Queensland had been totally devastated by the floods.
He argued that Queensland has suffered from severe drought in recent times, and the floods have transformed the outback into a greener destination for ‘grey nomads’ looking for a winter break – which would bring much needed tourism revenue to the region.
He added: “It could be argued that it was insensitive for Australia’s other destinations to continue advertising while Queensland was dealing with the floods.”
Tourism Queensland announced a $10m marketing blitz last month, which federal tourism minister Martin Ferguson describes as “one of the largest coordinated tourism marketing initiatives in Australian history”.
The ‘grass is greener’ spot, part of a series of four other ads featuring Gyton Grantley and Ryan Johnson, is part of the “Nothing beats Queensland” campaign created by DDB Sydney. The ads are filmed in different locations of Queensland to celebrate the region’s diverse appeal.
Beach:
Cafe:
Rainforest:
Reef:
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Tourism Queensland
I don’t think it’s in poor taste. It’s good to see the brighter side of life being illustrated in the tourism campaign.
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I normally like the work of Paul Murray, but think he’s drawing a really long bow with this.
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I can see what they are going for but the grass doesn’t look greener??
Looks more like NT than QLD…
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As a Queenslander – I like it.
I don’t think it actually needs to be greener – to me it’s more metaphorical.
As though it refers to the culture of the Queenslanders and their ability to smile in the face of adversity.
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Another sad indictment of Queensland agencies that a Sydney shop has to come up with this concept. Even more confounding is that it’s such a banal generic idea that seems to be propped up with a couple of TV stars in an attempt to add some extra power!
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I agree – this is rubbish. no one is going to go to Queensland to stand on a brown rock and look at scrub. Even if they are 75!
And even if Gyton Grantley is doing the puns…..
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