The Niagara Parks Commission has pulled a $300,000 ad campaign promoting Niagara as a getaway from the city after it got hit with a earful of complaints from Toronto residents, politicians and the media.

Niagara 'Shake off the City' ad

The ads start with scenes of urban chaos (noisy traffic, graffiti, theft, crowded parks, etc.) in an unnamed city, and then shift to a peaceful scene in Niagara. The tagline – Shake off the City.

Even though the city is unnamed in the ads, the logo clearly depicts the Toronto skyline with the CN Tower and Rogers Centre, which then morphs into trees and the sun. The Shake off the City ads are part of the NPC’s Break Free Niagara campaign.

The four TV spots and eight web ads were produced by a Toronto based ad agency named Orange Hill who were paid $60,000 to produce videos that would go viral on youtube. The NPC also shelled out $244,900 for air time on CP24 and CTV. The ads are catching on, but just not in the way the NPC wanted.

The concept was based on complaints about urban life voiced in focus groups which included Toronto residents. The execution was good too, except that they got too hung up on Toronto instead of keeping the focus on Niagara. The Toronto city skyline in the ad’s logo was a big mistake.

After complaints by residents and the media coverage sent the story viral on the web, the NPC pulled four of the ads. The backlash went political when Toronto Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone, who is running for the Mayor’s office, said he was offended and advised “our Niagara Parks Commission cousins that they should treat their relatives a little bit better.”

George Smitherman, another mayoral candidate, went one step further and landed up in Niagara Falls early in the morning with a TV crew. He taped a letter to the NPC office door that said “Do the right thing and immediately abandon your ill-advised, immature advertising campaign which serves nobody’s interests.”

The TV ads have been pulled and only one of the ads is currently available on the Niagara Break Free channel on youtube, but all the videos can be seen on their website – www.niagarabreakfree.com/videos.html

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