When an ad campaign appeared in the London Underground promoting South Carolina as a “So Gay” destination for gay and lesbian tourists, the spokesman for the state’s tourism agency shared his unease with a colleague.
“I’m praying this little story doesn’t jump the pond, especially as the later summer slow news cycle sets in,” Marion Edmonds wrote in a July 3 e-mail. “Let’s hope that doesn’t get picked up by some SC tourist and brought back. It would be a classic case of a picture doing the damage of a thousand words.”
Edmonds’ prayer was not answered. The story broke in early July in the blogosphere, and then moved into mainstream news reports.
A pile of e-mail printouts at the South Carolina Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department illustrates the agency’s confused response to the ads — which apparently were approved by a lone employee who may not have even looked at them — and the media storm that followed.
Freedom of Information requests yielded a four-inch stack of e-mail and documents dating to 2004.
The communications suggest an agency employee, who since has resigned, decided to spend $4,942.50 from a tourism promotion fund he controlled on the campaign designed to draw South Carolina trip bookings during London Pride, a gay event.
State officials quickly reneged on the decision to spend money on the ads. Tourism industry experts said by washing its hands of the ad campaign, the state is losing out on lucrative business.
John Tanzella, executive director of the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association, last month called it “mind-boggling” that South Carolina wouldn’t invest $5,000 to draw tourism from a lucrative niche market.
The hundreds of e-mails show the agency’s leadership figuring out how and why the ads were running in the first place and hoping the story would blow over.
The same day that spokesman Edmonds sent his note to Amy Duffy, the agency’s chief of staff, one of Duffy’s longtime friends forwarded an e-mail from an employee who was vacationing in London.
It included pictures from a gay tour promoter’s Web site talking up South Carolina’s Civil War roots and gay beaches. “Imagine my surprise in seeing this poster in a London Underground station,” the employee wrote. “Who knew?”
A document from Amro Worldwide, the tour promoter, says the posters along escalators were designed to change attitudes and “‘reclaim’ the term ‘so gay’ as a term that is rendered strongly positive for lesbian and gay people. It also allows gay and lesbian people to feel that the term is being neutered as a negative putdown, by portraying ‘so gay’ as they experience it — to be a very good thing indeed; for gay consumers and for each destination highlighted.”
Atlanta, Boston and New Orleans were among the six locations featured on the “So Gay” posters.
The Amro Worldwide document, along with images of the proposed poster, were sent to Rand Romaine, the Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department’s sales manager, by Kirsty Dillury, the agency’s contract representative in the United Kingdom, for approval two days before a deadline to include them in the display.
“As you can see the images are very powerful and work well together,” Dillury writes on May 19. She follows up the next day, pressing Romaine for approval.
“It’s good to go,” Romaine replies.
It was the only communication from the agency approving the ad. None of the e-mail shows Romaine vetted the ad with agency managers before they first appeared June 27.
Chad Prosser, the state agency director, said he learned about the ads July 3 with the note forwarded from Duffy’s friend.
Edmonds, the department spokesman, had learned about them on June 30 with news releases.
Taxpayers soon found out about them, too.
“This needs to be stopped immediately!” wrote Tom Irby, a Belton retiree, in an e-mail to Republican Gov. Mark Sanford, Prosser’s boss after the news broke in South Carolina. “The persons responsible for this travesty should be fired!”
Romaine, who had worked at PRT since 1996, resigned July 11. Prosser says it was voluntary. Romaine did not respond to calls from the AP.
Romaine told Duffy in an e-mail he didn’t “specifically recall seeing the actual ad creative.” Duffy and Edmonds said the agency’s computer techs weren’t able to show that Romaine had ever opened the file Dillury had sent with the details.
“I saw a sales opportunity and reacted,” Romaine wrote.
The agency’s reaction appeared confused. For instance, on July 3, Romaine told Dillury he’d been ordered to get the ads taken down, but reversed himself 20 minutes later at Prosser’s direction.
“We were going through the process and beginning to look at taking action,” and didn’t want to embarrass the state, Prosser said. At the time, “we didn’t think it was something that we needed to make a big deal out of.”
Meanwhile, computer technicians had to open the agency’s Internet filter so Edmonds could see how the story played out on gay Web sites.
Ultimately, tour operator was paid — but out of Dillury’s company’s funds.
Prosser brushes aside questions about the publicity that South Carolina attracted.
“South Carolina is a tremendous tourism product. It appeals to a broad group of people,” he said. “We do welcome everyone. Our job is just to keep getting that message out beyond the static that’s being caused by certain groups.”
Ron Cicero and Bo Clancey Launch Production House 34North
Executive producers Ron Cicero and Bo Clancey have teamed to launch 34North. The shop opens with a roster which includes accomplished directors Jan Wentz, Ben Nakamura Whitehouse, David Edwards and Mario Feil, as well as such up-and-coming filmmakers as Glenn Stewart and Chris Fowles. Nakamura Whitehouse, Edwards, Feil and Fowles come over from CoMPANY Films, the production company for which Cicero served as an EP for the past nearly five years. Director Wentz had most recently been with production house Skunk while Stewart now gains his first U.S. representation. EP Clancey was freelance producing prior to the formation of 34North. He and Cicero have known each other for some 25 years, recently reconnecting on a job directed by Fowles. Cicero said that he and Clancey “want to keep a highly focused roster where talent management can be one on one--where we all share in the directors’ success together.” Clancey also brings an agency pedigree to the new venture. “I started at Campbell Ewald in accounts, no less,” said Clancey. “I saw firsthand how much work agencies put in before we even see a script. You have to respect that investment. These agency experiences really shaped my approach to production--it’s about empathy, listening between the lines, and ultimately making the process seamless.” 34North represents a meeting point--both literally and creatively. Named after the latitude of Malibu, Calif., where the idea for the company was born, it also embraces the power of storytelling. “34North118West was the first GPS-enabled narrative,” Cicero explained. “That blend of art and technology, to captivate an audience, mirrors what we do here--create compelling work, with talented people, harnessing state-of-the-art... Read More