New WA Tourism campaign to launch February 7
January 14 2010, 9:26 am | | 32 Comments
Tourism WA’s Stephanie Buckland has told The West Australian WA Tourism’s new ‘taxi ride’ campaign will be launched on February 7.
Buckland has taken over as Acting CEO of Tourism WA following Richard Muirhead’s decision to resign at the end of last year.
32 Comments
Oh my god – you have got to be kidding me. This is ‘not very good’ at all. I had several expletives lined up to use but then I worried that by showing my dismay, loathing and sheer shock at this ‘not very good’ work in anything other then non-foul language would stop my comment from being published.
Taxi’s promoting WA you have got to be kidding me. They are not iconically West Australian and you would never use one to get around our state because of its sheer size. Also, what is with the pic of the cab in the middle of what looks like a dusty, hot, arid and undesirable landscape? Is it pulling the piss – like the taxi will take you away from the middle of no where. I’m starting to think this campaign is actually trying to be funny, like deliberately on purpose.
From a selfish stand point I’m also concerned about this campaign taking another taxi off Perth roads – as far as I can tell that means a 25% reduction in the cabs currently available.
http://www.brickfish.com/Lifestyles/SDCVB?tab=overview
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http://wishyouwerehere.ucsc.edu/index.html
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http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/newshome/6677398/new-tourism-campaign-to-be-driven-by-taxi/
OK so we haven’t actually seen the campaign yet, but this is at best, a me-too to Queensland, but nowhere near as single minded. It reeks of ‘design by committee and using a taxi as a lead is just bloody stupid. One of the big issues this state has as a tourism destination is its size – too far, two expensive and too big, if the communication is suggesting you can do the whole state in the back of a stinky taxi (if you can find one) as an attempt to make the destination more accessible, they must consider the consumer to be thick as pig shit – or is it just another way of doing a montage of shots – just like ‘the real thing’ I actually feel sorry for Host it must have been a painful process, I imagine this was once a great idea until the vultures picked the bones out of it. MF you’re well out of it!
Wish I was at Host where you get paid 4 million bucks to come up with this.
‘Wish you were here?’ Nope.
This will have to go down as the quote of the decade;
“Ms Buckland said it was an opportunity to promote the State and the best of the taxi industry which, she said, was often seen in a poor light.”
THE BEST OF THE TAXI INDUSTRY!?
What the…?
In my experience even “the best of the taxi industry” is reason enough not to ever come WA.
Strange that TourismWA feel that the taxi industry is worth supporting but not the creative industries.
Put yourself in the shoes of your international audience, regardless of the destinations shown, why would anyone follow this in the first place? I’m interested in learning of the global PR opportunity here.
No.
Nice rip off of the the Queensland campaign, the creatives must have worked hard to come up with this one. Well done guys.
One question, have any of you actually been to WA and tried to get a cab? Obviously not! The state of cabs in this state is absolutely appalling, should you be the lucky person to actually get one, they stink and 9 times out of 10 – have no idea where they are going.
And seriously, who has the luxury of time to drive around WA? Do we really want to attract more of the caravan crowd?
I think you guys deserve a slap.
The only place in the world that could possibly use a taxi as an icon is NYC.
I don’t understand what they are trying to suggest here (and I refuse to completely freak out until I see the campaign)? I am boggled?
And I love the diplomatic way CB dealt with Richard Muirhead’s shafting – “resignation” indeed.
$4million leaves the state never to be seen again.
If I was in the Tourism WA Marketing Department and was responsible for this, i’d be in the first fckn taxi out of town. The Pinnacles are not far enough and neither is Mandurah.
So picture this, I live in Sydney and decide I need a holiday, I get on a plane and land at Perth Airport, initially I think I’ve got off at the wrong stop and this is Woopwoop, but no this IS Perth. I then queue for three and a half hours for a taxi, finally I get one. The driver doesn’t get out to help with my bags so I load them into the boot myself, then I get in, he’s smoking and through the smell of smoke, I can smell piss, and through the smell of piss, I can smell the taxi driver, who smells of sweat…and piss . On the meter it already says $42.35, I ask him why, but he cant speak English. I ask him to take me to the Parmelia Hilton and after driving around Palmyra, then Hamilton Hill we eventually we get to the hotel and he charges me $348, I get my own bags out of the cab and realize that my, clothes not only stink, but there is chewing gum stuck to my arse and my ears are bleeding from listening to Somalian Disco for 3 hours – these are our new brand ambassadors, God help us!
Wish You Were Here? In the desert with some big rocks? Er, no.
Judgement of the campaign aside for the moment, the taxi industry in Perth lets down locals and visitors day-in and day-out. Taxi availability in Perth is so dire that people actually avoid going out to spare themselves the drama. How does that support tourism?
The taxi industry deserves nothing but vitriol from Tourism WA, yet here they are being promoted and supported. Every other deserving sector of the tourism industry in WA should be aghast.
Ms Buckland, the Taxi industry is “often seen in a poor light” because their service is just that, poor.
The only thing that could possibly save this steaming pile would be De Niro reprising his role as Travis Bickle and piloting said stinking cab towards a show down with Bradley John Murdoch in Wolf Creek. Then the rest of the world would give a rats and you might have a hope in hell of being compared with Best Job In The World.
This fails on so many levels:
1. Wish I was there? I’m pretty sure I saw that was the set of Wolf Creek, so no.
2. I dread having to catch a cab to the airport let alone a 9hr drive north
3. WA dollars gone to waste
4. Cries of desperation for a re-invented QLD campaign
5. I accept that there will probably be more scenery to follow as the campaign unfolds. But surely you’d open with a picture of Ningaloo or Cape le Grande?
6. Cab drivers been recently rejecting fares to Rockingham. Are they really likely to drive you to the Pinnacles?
I could go on, but I think we’re all on the same page.
3.26
I’ve been in that taxi too!
Just another client that was a ‘big fish in a small bowl’ only to become an ‘also ran’ over East. I am assuming this was put together but Hosts copy boy???
Nice work TWA. Just another way to confuse Tourists about WA and its accessibility. It will be interesting to see the numbers of Tourists that come to Perth in the next few years, walk out of their Hotel, grab a cab and ask to go to Broome!!!!
this has got to be a joke right? after close to a year of development they come up with this rubbish.
kill me immediately.
As a frequent business traveller, the only thing I can say about Perth taxi drivers is they are not as bad as Sydney taxi drivers, who still manage to get lost despite having a GPS unit and regularly boost the meter.
But at least I have never had to wait 45 minutes at Sydney airport to catch a cab, unlike in Perth where that is a regular occurence. It is so embarrassing to stand in line for a taxi at Perth airport and listen to the dismayed reactions of visiting tourists.
Ill conceived campaign.
WTF ?
Of all the lame campaigns that WA Tourism have fallen for this is without doubt the pinnacle of crap … and they went all the way to Sydney to get conned
What an absolute waste of money
“Wish you were here ?” … more like “Wish someone in WATC had half a brain !”
This doesn’t show the whole ad – this is an ad for WA taxi drivers to apply to be the taxi that spends 9 weeks taking someone around WA for $25,000 for what I assume will be a diary style campaign showing the “attractions of WA” or something along those lines… The irony of that concept is hilarious from the perspective of someone living in Perth, but I doubt other countries would get it. Having said that, some travellers I have met from Europe for example, actually come to Australia for the novelty of driving 8 hours and literally seeing nothing, let alone still being in the same state/country.
I’m holding my judgement until I see the rest of the campaign.
And how about the greenhouse emissions that will be generated by a taxi traversing WA?
Not a very green approach – maybe TWA is trying to appeal to the Chinese market after their display at Copenhagen….
Wow, nothing but hate here. I work my butt off as a taxi driver. Eighty hours a week over seven nights is pretty typical for me. My passengers get the best ride that I can provide, in a car that I thoroughly wash and vacuum every second night.
Reading stuff like this is extremely discouraging. Why bother putting in the effort when all you all want to do is criticise what I do?
If you don’t like the standard of taxi driver then instead of sitting around and whinging on the internet get off your butts and do something about it. Contact your local MP and ask what the state government is doing to find and recruit *good* drivers. Oh, it turns out that there are so many crap operators because nobody else will even drive taxis!
I’ve just made the phone call to apply to be in this advertising promotion. If I win though, do I still have the right to ask for the $25,000 fare payment up front? 😉
Looks like most of us negative bloogers were wrong. Taxis and their drivers are the perfect brand ambassadors
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/newshome/6687513/more-bad-taxis-put-off-roads/
Fuck me dead. I live in Sydney. And I wouldn’t come to Perth if you paid me after listening to you all whinging bunch of racist, bigoted bafoons. Yes we have smelly cabs here and drivers who aren’t the world best cabbies, but the way you guys go on and on and on about losing a piece of business to the east coast is nauseating. Get over it. It will be back really soon after this campaign runs for two and a half minutes.
I will whinge about a bad campaign that has come from a piece of business that with my taxes I am paying for . Especially if that bad campaign has diverted funds from the local industry I work in. Shame Barnett and Constable.
Interesting comments being posted on the CB National Blog.
9:44
Thanks for your kind words. Cronulla.
Regards,
Someone who can go to the beach.
9:44. Racist? Where? I can see where people have pointed out that many of the cabbies can’t speak English, but I can’t see how this is racist? There are plenty of cabbies of European roots in Perth that this applies to or do you racially stereotype all taxi drivers? Xenophobic? Maybe. But it is far more likely that they are commenting on the fact that there would appear to be quite a large number of drivers in Perth that fail to fulfill a basic requirement of the job, i.e. they can not communicate with their customers.
I think that it is pretty juvenile to pull the race card when the comments here are critiquing the appropriateness of the use a taxi icon in campaign for the state. And it especially rich when it comes from someone whose lovely city includes the lovely ocean-side suburb of Cronulla.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMkXZ15cgIw
12.33. Interesting
Distance from London to Marrakesh?
2203km
Distance from Perth to Broom?
2237km
Were any local production companies invited to pitch on the TVC production?