■ The  “So Gay” ads on the escalators at the Leicester Square London Underground station.  South Carolina politicians are fuming and ordered them removed. photo courtesy www.OutNowConsulting.com

LONDON, July 14, 2008  –  American politicians overseeing the body responsible for South Carolina tourism have come down against an advertising campaign currently running in the UK directed towards lesbian and gay travellers.

The Amro Worldwide “So Gay” campaign has been widely praised by the gay and lesbian community for helping to remove the sting of “so gay” as an intended insult, by turning it into the strong positive that gays and lesbians feel the phrase should be, and applying it to increase tourism to various US destinations.

The “So Gay” campaign was designed by the leading gay marketing specialist, Out Now, and includes five other US travel destinations.

Today the South Carolina Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department (SCPRT) said that despite previously approving it, they were now pulling out of the campaign, and were not going to pay for it.

They also said they had asked the advertising be removed.  The advertising is still in place at Leicester Square Tube station.

The story has got South Carolinians talking about whether they really are gay welcoming or not, and was described by local news station WCBD as “the water cooler story of the day”.

It was also the front page item on South Carolina’s major newspaper, The State.

Joel Sawyer, spokesman for Gov. Mark Sanford, told The State  that using tax money to support a social or political agenda is inappropriate.

“Our state tourism dollars should be talking about the beaches and attractions of South Carolina,” Mr. Sawyer said.

And State Sen. David Thomas, a Greenville County Republican, told the Greenville News after being tipped to the state’s participation in the ad campaign to attract gay tourists that he “thought it was a joke, that this couldn’t be true”.

Sen. Thomas told the News that he objected to advertising to gays because “this is absolutely a subject matter that adheres to a social position and it’s simply improper for the state to be going after one social position”.

He went on to say that he had asked the department for a copy of the advertising contract involved.  

“The department [(CPRT] has essentially said we hired a company to do the advertising and they hired someone in turn,” he told the News, describing the company that placed the ads as “blatantly” homosexual.

“Somebody has to be responsible for this,” the Senator fumed.  “And we’ll demand responsibility.”

Andrew Roberts, CEO of Amro Worldwide said that the decision by SCPRT was one that was disappointing, and went on to say the “So Gay” campaign was an important one for several reasons.

“Amro Worldwide helps to arrange the travel arrangements for some of the three million gays and lesbians living in the UK,” Mr. Roberts said.

“Our work helps local business in each of the regions we send travellers to.  We were heartened to see many strongly supportive remarks included amongst reader comments made in the reporting of this story in the US media.

“Targeting gay travel is not at all a moral issue in any sense,” he pointed out.

“It is all about treating this particular group of citizens with equality and respect – something we consider very important in our dealings with all of Amro Worldwide's customers.”

Ian Johnson, CEO of Out Now, the gay marketing agency that designed the campaign, said that the amount of money paid was miniscule compared to the value the campaign brings to the local South Carolina tourism industry.

“Before today, I would have said that many of the three million gays and lesbians in the UK making travel plans would now have been adding South Carolina to their list of travel possibilities as a result of this campaign,” he said.

“That number will drop dramatically from here because the SCPRT seems to want to side with anti-gay people against a campaign designed to sell tolerance and respect, as well as sell gay travel.

“From the perspective of the many hundreds of South Carolinian businesses that rely in part on gay tourism for their survival, this is not a moral issue in any way.  It is a business issue, pure and simple.”

Mr. Johnson added that latest research suggests that around five per cent of South Carolina taxpayers can be expected to be lesbian and gay.

“I can’t help wondering what they would make of this campaign,” he said.  “It seems almost bizarre to suggest that spending a handful of dollars – less than $5,000 in total out of a taxpayer budget of $10.5 million – to attract UK gay travellers to consider visiting South Carolina is somehow too much .

“By rights, the amount allocated to gay tourism spend in the annual budget should be over $500,000 were all these South Carolinian gay taxpayer dollars to be allocated proportionately in the budget to attracting gay ‘fellow travellers’ to visit."

Ian Johnson is presenting the Out Now Gay Marketing Masterclass at the leading travel marketing event, WTM World Travel Market in London in November 2008.

“I did find one remark reported to be made by Sen. David Thomas (R-Greenville) in the press to be of great concern," said Mr. Johnson.

“He says that the Amro ‘So Gay’ campaign goes against South Carolina ‘core values.  Given that the campaign is all about attracting business to the State, through furthering principles of equality and respect, his comments leave me wondering just what types of ‘core values’ Senator Thomas thinks South Carolina stands for.

Amro Worldwide is one of the world's market leaders in selling travel for lesbian and gay people, and was established in 2001 at a time when the general market for travel was at an historical low.

“We really do hope people will still feel able to travel to South Carolina,” said Mr. Roberts.

“I think the destination has so much to offer any traveller, and that was all we wanted to do – to let gays and lesbians in the UK know that there is much to see and enjoy in the State.

“It will be a shame if the actions of SCPRT today causes people to stay away causing their local tourism industry to suffer as a result."

The Amro Worldwide ‘So Gay’ poster campaign ran on escalators in Leicester Square, and in elevators at Covent Garden London Underground stations, from June 27 until July 12, 2008.

Out Now Consulting is a leading global gay marketing specialist agency, founded in 1992.  Its clients include many ‘blue chip’ companies like Barclays Bank, IBM, Toyota, Citibank, German National Tourist Office, Visit Britain, Lufthansa and Time Inc. Magazines.  Out Now recently won the “Outstanding Interactive” category in New York at the ‘Images in Advertising’ awards for an online campaign for their client Lufthansa.

courtesy www.OutNowConsulting.com