Skift Take

Media attention during Hurricane Sandy worked against A.C.’s tourism industry. It’ll either take time or a major marketing push to erase the image of a drowning roller coaster from the public’s mind.

The Atlantic City Alliance retooled and relaunched its $6 million DO AC tourism marketing campaign last week after a brief interruption due to Hurricane Sandy.

A poll conducted by Russell Research found that 41 percent of Americans believe the boardwalk was destroyed; an assumption that the city is concerned will trump reality and keep tourists away from its casinos, restaurants, and hotels.

The new full-page ad to be printed in the New York Times tomorrow features images of the boardwalk before and after Hurricane Sandy. It is the first national ad for the city since the DO AC campaign launched in April.

The new 30-second commercial that aired Monday is a spinoff of the original ad that uses similar images with new text to portray a boardwalk “still standing strong,” casinos and restaurants “open for business,” and ends on the definitive declaration: “It takes more than a hurricane to stop us from doing what we do.”

No images of the roller coaster sitting off shore will be included in the advertisements, despite rumors to turn its watery grave into a tourist attraction.

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Tags: atlantic city, climate change, marketing

Photo credit: Atlantic City's new DO AC ad displays a calm and restored shore line. Atlantic City Alliance / Atlantic City Alliance

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