Oregon has a new travel ad, and it's a doozy.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
The flowery animated feature (no shade – that's some luscious natural beauty!) has been making the rounds on the internet thanks to its scrumptious and imaginative design. The animation – done by Psyop – drew comparisons to Disney and Studio Ghibli, which is quite the way to put your state (and an animation studio) on the map.
The whole campaign follows fantastical elements like giant frogs and bunnies, weird cloud creatures, and dancing shooting stars, with a track from the Oregon Symphony making the one minute 30 second ad feel more like a movie trailer than a tourism campaign. It all ends with the campaigns slogan: Only slightly exaggerated.
Which makes you wonder: How does Washington put its best foot forward in the tourism game?
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
Well ... not well, in short. The Washington State Tourism office closed six years ago, and while the Washington Tourism Alliance has tried to get funding back, there hasn't been a lot of state-wide marketing and branding.
And it's not like Washington campaigns were anything to write home about before the office closed.
The most memorable campaign this century was the wildly unpopular "Say WA" which withered on the vine far longer than people cared to think about it.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
But the state of Washington still maintains a healthy and robust legacy of questionable tourism campaigns and city slogans. Like Vancouver, Washington, which would just like to remind everyone that they were here first:
We've gathered some of them into the slideshow above.