I was reading some marketing blogs recommended by Scott and came across one older post that I found really interesting. This very short post brings to attention two contrasting marketing efforts addressing tourism in Canada.
The Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) promotes the country with its slogan “Inspiring the World to explore Canada.” PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) on the other hand challenges this campaign by showing a seal hunt video ending with a slogan “Explore Elsewhere/Explorez Ailleurs.” The author of the blog leaves the reader with this line: “Wonder what CTC thinks of the borrowed tag line?”
I find this blog well written because it points out something interesting and manages to do so by only using a few sentences. I like how the author leaves it open to the reader to make an opinion and guides him to think about the problem from a marketing point of view.
My take on this is that PETA is not very ethical in the way it portrays Canada. The seal hunt is a very old Inuit tradition which is part of Canadian history. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with this and the only reason why people find it so disturbing is because seals are cute animals and the red blood contrasts well with the white snow. PETA is taking advantage of the affective attitudes people form when watching this video and then tries to use it to say that this is a good reason why people should not visit Canada. I find this connection irrelevant.