A new ad campaign to promote Palm Springs tourism takes a few shots at another desert oasis. The Desert Sun reports:
Rolled out with the tagline, “Like no place else,” Palm Springs is setting itself up as a David vs. Goliath.
The advertising series, Palm Springs vs. Las Vegas, juxtaposes all of the images of Las Vegas against the backdrop of Palm Springs’ spots to point out key differences to the discerning tourist, using catchy headlines and images such as “Getting high means something completely different to us” framed against a stunning shot of a Palm Springs Aerial Tramway car ascending in front of Mount San Jacinto.
While it tweaks Sin City, the folks behind its great campaign don’t seem to mind.
“I take it as a compliment,” said Randy Snow, creative director of the “What happens here, stays here” campaign and now chief strategic officer with Las Vegas-based R&R Partners. “If you can be used as a standard of comparison, that’s good. They don’t have to explain Las Vegas to people because the brand is known.”
Discover more from Adpulp
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
I’d argue that the target traveler already knows what’s “wrong” with Vegas without needing to be hammered over the head by an “us vs. them” scenario. Whenever I happen upon photo spreads of Palm Springs in travel mags, I always think, man, that’s a really gorgeous, distinctive place. Does it really compete with Vegas when the vibes are almost polar opposites?
Then there’s the groan-inducing copy… “getting high”… oh, I get it, that can mean TWO things! HAHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHAAHHAHHAHHAAA!
Unless PS is trying to ratchet its image down a notch or two, this all seems off (and maybe a little desperate) to me.