5 April 2012

Creative Canberra promotion by Centenary Creative Director

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I don’t doubt that it was largely the product of extremely biased huffy Sydney-is-the-best-stuff-the-rest reporting which is oh so typical of SMH, but with quotes like….

“Just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t there,” she said.
“That’s not the city’s fault. That’s your shortcoming.”

and

“It’s your capital and you need get to know it better,” she told Australians, imploring them to visit.”You could update your opinion. Save yourself the embarrassment of displaying constant ignorance about your own capital city.”

…. I couldn’t help but think of the “where the bloody hell are you?” failed Tourism Australia campaign when reading this SMH article on a speech made by the Creative Director of Canberra’s 2013 Centenary bash, Robyn Archer, at the National Press Club this week.

While I’m not disagreeing at all with the underlying truth of Robyn’s statements (especially that a lot of people who slag off Canberra have either never been here at all or only for a 2 day grade 7 school excursion), I’m not sure how effective a marketing campaign for tourism is when you’re insulting the potential tourists/visitors. Thoughts?

There is a poll attached to the article – Riot Acters should definitely vote in that (amazingly the numbers are in Canberra’s favour at the moment!) but I wouldn’t recommend reading beyond the article into the comments section which is mainly filled with more Smogney self-importance.

UPDATE 05/04/12 15:22: The text of the speech is now available

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Little_Green_Bag3:41 pm 05 Apr 12

The only thing I can say about Sydney is that it is a nice place to visit but you wouldn’t want to live there.

Rollersk8r said :

I strongly agree with her. People should be proud of their capital. Dare I say it.

I always love the comments like “I lived in Canberra for 10 years and it was boring”. Really? 10 years? You just sat on the couch in complete silence for a decade wondering why Canberra wasn’t doing more for you? I can only assume every other city is confetti, party poppers and conga lines 24/7 – just a non-stop party!

Well said.

I especially love the comments that state “I went there once for a school excursion in Year 7 and will never go back!” Seriously, if that’s all you base your decisions on, please stay away! We don’t want you!

I’ll admit I am a bit biased as I was born here and have lived in Canberra most of my life but I do genuinely love living here. Personally I couldn’t think of a more soul-sucking city than Sydney, and would take Canberra over it any day of the week!

I strongly agree with her. People should be proud of their capital. Dare I say it.

I always love the comments like “I lived in Canberra for 10 years and it was boring”. Really? 10 years? You just sat on the couch in complete silence for a decade wondering why Canberra wasn’t doing more for you? I can only assume every other city is confetti, party poppers and conga lines 24/7 – just a non-stop party!

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