53 replies to this topic

[Baro]

I was just watching global news, apparently some new tourism promotion promotes victoria as the "place for the perfect orgasm" . Trying to make victoria seems racy or exciting.

They interviewed a bunch of people from out of town, they all said dismissive"orgasmic? no.. mildly stimulating" or "Orgasm? no.. don't they just have that museum?". It's going to take a lot for victoria to break its boring reputation....

What do you guys think? I think it's a movement in the right direction. This campaign alone won't do anything, but victoria really needs to realise it's not just for the newly wed and nearly dead.

[Mike K.]

That's idiotic.

How about we start by loosening the grip over entertainment venues and entertainment potential in this city so "residents" can make this a fun place to be, as opposed to ridiculous slogans asserting dubious claims.

[VicHockeyFan]

Lots of people come here.

[G-Man]

I think it is Victoria, the perfect orgasm. Still people are so up tight they hear a "dirty" word and freak out. Geez at least they aren't saying the perfect toasted crumpet.

[aastra]

Lots of people come here.

Would it be premature of me to suggest this particular intercourse has reached its climax?

[Holden West]

V i c t o r i a



TOLERATING INTERCOURSE
SINCE 1862

[aastra]

That date should be 1862. A fake like that has no place in a discussion about the perfect orgasm.

[Holden West]

Ah, yes, not 1852. It just seemed that long ago...

[m0nkyman]

V i c t o r i a



TOLERATING INTERCOURSE
SINCE 1862

Invoice for new keyboard is in the mail....

[Ms. B. Havin]

Well, did y'all see the article in today's T-C "Business" section, [url=http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/business/story.html?id=5316f36d-d48d-454f-9833-b7a3c7014e16&k=66152:4d934]Passionate venture -- New business teaches ways to add fire to your relationship[/url:4d934]?

[Cheryl] Fraser, a psychologist who specializes in relationship and sex therapy, and her sister, Joanne Macdonald, have launched Compassionate Ventures, a seminar series that teaches single and married people alike how to add some fire to their relationships, unlock their passionate sides and avoid the pitfalls that kill relationships.

Hmm, together with coming together to create an orgasmic Victoria, this could be a concerted effort to bring about passionate revitalization, no?

...Fraser has boiled her advice and research into a series of seminars like the three-day "awakened lover weekend" and the five-day "awakened lover bedroom boot camp" designed to turn duds into studs, good girls into goddesses and all the while creating passionate people who will build stronger relationships.

How strong do Victorians want it, I wonder...

Interestingly, Fraser adds this piece to the puzzle:

"Honestly it was time for me to stop being a money monk," said Fraser of the drive to open the business. "I realized the work I was doing (one-on-one therapy, one-off seminars, and a variety of media therapy gigs) I was afraid to make money, but that was small-minded and I realized if I created a successful business I could donate much more money back to the community."

So, given the tight-assed attitude toward money in this town, maybe passionate "O" is exactly what the place needs...? :smt008

[Holden West]

The media is really milking this for all its worth.
=============

Victoria's secrets bared
City's new ads shed its sedate image, beckon tourists with lascivious grin

SHANNON MONEO

Special to The Globe and Mail

VICTORIA -- Victoria is sexing up its prim and proper image with provocative ads targeted at tourists who crave the sweet things in life.

Tarted up with lascivious double entendres, the Tourism Victoria ads lust after American, Albertan and Vancouver visitors. One, which reads "Time to Experience that [url=http://www.anyvitamins.com/treatment-tingling.htm:a80e7]Tingling Sensation[/url:a80e7]," is directly aimed at gay and lesbian travellers.

Two other ad headlines read: "Your Search for the Perfect Orgasm is Over" and "Meet Victoria. Beautiful, Talented and Dead Sexy."

The first is aimed at culinary tourists seeking the ultimate oral experiences to be found in Victoria's varied and top-notch eateries. The second is for outdoor adventurers who like to mix power shopping with a spa sojourn.

Because the sedate and iconic images of high tea and horse-drawn carriage rides have been trotted out long enough, Tourism Victoria's board and marketing commission has swung to "guerrilla marketing" for 2007.

"We want to catch someone's attention," said Melissa McLean, Tourism Victoria's vice-president of marketing.

"If you can't do that, you've basically lost the day."

The initial five ads, created by Victoria-based Trapeze Communications, have created a "swirl of controversy," Ms. McLean said.

"They challenge those who think they know Victoria," she said.

With more to come, the ads continue a strategy started last March to rebrand Victoria as a place where old-world traditions meet new-world experiences.

The "orgasm" ad ran in Northwest Palate magazine, based in Portland, Ore., and will also appear in the Vancouver Playhouse Wine Festival program in March.

Northwest Palate editor Angie Jabine was surprised that the ad, geared to gastronomes, was causing a stir.

The magazine hasn't received a single call, e-mail or letter about the ad, which appeared in the January-February issue.

Northwest Palate's very loyal readers, most older than 40, well-educated and well-travelled, would let Ms. Jabine know if the ad was unpalatable.

There was in-house debate, however, about where the ad would be placed. It ran on page 40 of the 64-page magazine, in a less-than-prominent spot.

Brock Smith, a University of Victoria marketing and entrepreneurship professor, likes the five ads because they speak directly to gay, romantic-getaway and good-food clientele.

"It's easy to say on first blush that they are not appropriate, but they are appropriate in context," Prof. Smith said. More than 80 per cent of Victoria's tourists are repeat visitors who have experienced the tea-and-crumpet and Inner Harbour circuit several times.

These ads -- touting the "new Provence," gallery tours and whale-watching -- are telling readers that there is more to the city than meets the eye, Prof. Smith said.

They will be highly effective if they reach the intended audience, he said. The 900-member association of predominantly Victoria-area businesses has a 2007 budget of $4.3-million, with $3-million dedicated to marketing and advertising costs.

[aastra]

I shouldn't have read that while I was eating. The reference to "the new Provence" made me spray food all over my monitor.

Add that to the list of supremely unlikely places to which Victoria has been compared:

olde England
Paris
the Prague of the Pacific
the new Provence

What's next? Canada's Crete? Wilmington on the Juan de Fuca?

[aastra]

...there is more to the city than meets the eye...

So is the idea here that Victoria somehow perplexes tourists? They can travel anywhere else and have a great vacation, but when they come to Victoria they just can't bring themselves to explore? What's that all about?

[aastra]

If they really want to change popular perceptions, they simply need to stop perpetuating the same stereotypical images. Here's an idea: start showing pictures of the city...the real city.

[Holden West]

[aastra]

See how thoroughly the city is excluded from those images? Victoria is the only city in the world that deliberately avoids showing pictures of itself in its marketing campaigns. It's crazy.

[aastra]

By the way, these pictures aren't mine:

[Mike K.]

...when most of your downtown area is comprised of poorly maintained historic buildings in need of rehab and one-story temporary woodframe pinups from the 1960s, there's only so much a photographer can do to make the downtown appear "orgasmic."

So understandably TV uses stock photography taken in, say Minneapolis, and images of beaches from Ucluelet. At least those won't mess with the Olde England bs.

[Holden West]

City of Victoria Tourist Refund Program

This program is provided as a service for tourists who claim they were misrepresented or otherwise fooled by ad campaigns.

If you are a tourist and were shocked at what you saw when you arrived, please state the nature of the deception. Check as many as applicable:

1 [ ] Victoria apparently has buildings
2 [ ] Whale didn't jump out of water like brochure said
3 [ ] Shabbily dressed man dared to speak to me
4 [ ] Husband mesmerized by float planes
5 [ ] "Captain Vancouver" greeter not really captain
6 [ ] Did not experience orgasm, more like mild tingling or rash

[Mike K.]

7 [ ] Received ticket after maneuvering large vehicle into "green" parking stall
8 [ ] Couldn't walk to downtown from Swartz Bay