The ‘Do Something New’ campaign by 100% Pure New Zealand is urging people to “think outside the square”.
The new ad features comedian Tom Sainsbury as leader of an ‘S.O.S’ – aka a ‘social observation squad’. Sainsbury lists the most overdone snapshots that tourists recreate, with the “hot tub backshot”, “hot dog legs” and “man [sitting] quietly on the rock contemplating” chief among them.
He also bemoans the “summit spread eagle”, a “classic in these parts”. After interrupting two culprits of the spread eagle, Sainsbury tells them that this summer, they are “clamping down on anyone travelling under the social influence”.
Later, he runs through a lavender field hunting for influencers, only to find that the “lavender loiterers” have managed to escape.
The cheeky stab at influencer culture is part of New Zealand’s push to encourage domestic tourism amidst COVID-19 border closures. Australia has just shut the border to New Zealand for 72 hours after two people tested positive for the highly-contagious South African strain of the virus.
According to TIA (Tourism Industry Aotearoa), before the pandemic New Zealand’s domestic tourism expenditure was $24.4 billion (NZD). In contrast, expenditure on international tourism was $17.5 billion.
The country has a history of tongue-in-cheek tourism campaigns. In 2018, they launched #GetNZOnTheMap which saw comedian Rhys Darby and Prime Minister Jacinda Arden work together to solve the conspiracy of why New Zealand was being left off world maps. In the ad, Darby concludes that maybe the reason why NEW Zealand keeps getting ignored is because it looks like a “half-eaten lamb chop”.
In the new campaign, Tom Sainsbury reminds tourists that “there are so many great other photos to take beside your usual gram shots”.
