The Palm Springs Bureau of Tourism has launched a new ad campaign that bills itself as an alternative desert destination to Las Vegas. The controversial part is that the campaign and each ad is explicitly titled “Palm Springs vs. Las Vegas.”

Each ad explicitly disses Las Vegas for being too urban and ugly, with traffic, fake Eiffel towers and giant neon cowboys that leave little chance to enjoy the natural landscape.

One ad has the tagline “Getting high means something completely different to us” along with a picture of the Palm Springs Aerial tramway climbing up against the backdrop of Mt. San Jacinto.

Palm Spings vs Las Vegas

Another ad says that “It’s a wonderful place to wash the rest of the world off.” The picture shows a guest enjoying a spa treatment in a natural mineral pool, followed by text that says “Oh, it can be a dirty, dirty world out there, can’t it? Fortunately, there’s a terrific place to wash it all off. (As opposed to drinking yourself into a stupor with a three-foot plastic souvenir cup.)”

Other ads have taglines like “Vacation in sweet desert air. As opposed to bus and taxi exhaust” and “We don’t blow up our 50-year old architecture.”

The concept is that Palm Springs hopes to let people know that it is a mini-Vegas without the hassles and crowds. It’s an odd way to do it, to be sure, and Vegas might not take too kindly to being dissed like this. But Mary Jo Ginther, Director of Palm Springs Bureau of Tourism, explains that the ad concept is to highlight the reason why travelers visit both Las Vegas and Palm Springs…year-round sunshine, easy accessibility and a festive atmosphere.

Ginther adds that “But, as we all know, Palm Springs has a more relaxed pace. It is a shorter drive, no traffic, no long check-in lines, and plus, you can be lounging by the pool hours earlier… It’s just a different experience here… We love Vegas, and know that visitors will come to love Palm Springs as much, or even more.”

Palm Springs logo

To go along with the ad campaign, Palm Springs also unveiled a new logo and tagline – “Like no place else” and they intend to hammer this anti-Vegas theme all year long with a $600,000 ad spend on the campaign. The campaign was created by Andrew Wilkin LLC, San Bernardino.

There’s a long history of destinations coming up with ad campaigns that have tried to take the moral high ground against Sin City’s brand and iconic tagline ”What Happens here, Stays here.” The most recent example is New York’s Get More NYC campaign.