Posted by: Editor on Dec 13, 2006 – 01:05 PM
newsandinfo OK. So that time of year has arrived when everyone who lives up north starts thinking about tropical breezes, sunny skies and sandy beaches. Such thoughts typically lead a lot of shivering souls to plan a winter getaway to someplace warm.
The Bahamas have the virtue of being far enough away from the United States to seem like a really different and inviting place, while still close enough to make getting there easy. The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism knows this about its country and aggressively markets the Bahamas to Americans, especially right about now.
Fallon/Minneapolis has been entrusted since 2003 with luring tourists to the Bahamas via a campaign with the theme “Escape from Everyday Life.” But for a souped-up effort beginning this week — with triple last year’s media spend behind it — Fallon is introducing a different twist to the advertising via a new theme word, “Bahamavention.”
We must confess this made-up word was offputting. At best, the locution is awkward. But more to the point, it’s impossible — without some help — to figure out what the word might mean. Never a good sign.
Apparently, Bahamavention is meant to describe the act of someone concerned about the mental and physical condition of a friend or family member serving as an interventionist and performing a “vacation intervention” that ends with a trip to the Bahamas.
Way too convoluted, in our opinion.
The print and TV campaign is supposed to feature a cast of characters to whom just about anyone could relate. But from what we’ve seen of the print portion of the campaign, the images of these characters are obviously exaggerated — perhaps for comic effect — thereby rendering them freakish oddballs.
Every print execution presents a different beneficiary of a “Bahamavention” smiling in a strange fashion at the camera, which led us to conclude each just might have gone a little wacko — if they weren’t already — on the beach in the Bahamas.
The copy attached to each visual tries to make cute about the ugly pre-Bahamavention condition of each character, but for us, the weird vibe from the visuals kept undercutting the humor.
We’ll refrain from going into detail about the mostly painful-to-watch TV spots. Each introduces another sorry soul at the end or his or her rope who is counseled by friends or relatives about the need for a Bahamavention. We really cringed at a spot where a man is screaming at the top of his lungs to family members while denying that he yells. After watching this, we too could have used a Bahamavention almost as much as he.
BY LEWIS LAZARE Sun-Times Columnist
Chicago Sun-Times
www.suntimes.com/