Experience Regina campaign leaves public confused

It has been four days since Tourism Regina rebranded to Experience Regina, and its marketing campaign to attract tourism to the city hasn’t exactly resonated with people like the agency thought it would.

Over the weekend, many people online called some of the slogans offensive and sexist.

Some of those slogans included a contest called “Show us your Regina” and “The city that rhymes with fun.”

On Monday, Experience Regina CEO Tim Reid apologized after online backlash.

Speaking with people on the streets of Regina on Monday, many were confused by the marketing campaign.

“I kind of get it — they’re trying to make it funny — but at the same time it’s a super-tired joke,” Cassandra Potts said when asked what she thought about the Experience Regina rebrand and slogans.

Her friend Salieena Harvey agreed.

“I think it’s a well-played-out joke, honestly,” she said. “I don’t think they should’ve made merch(andise) about it because you’re supposed to actually support a city and not just make a meme out of it.”

Both felt the slogans don’t exactly help Regina’s cause when it comes to changing the opinion about what outsiders think about the city.

Cheyenne Ysaguirre was also confused by the slogans.

“I just saw it and thought it was hilarious,” she said. “They could’ve chose a different name.”

But she thinks overall, Experience Regina got its message through to the public.

“I think it really got the attention that they wanted it to get, so hopefully they’ll have people coming in and experiencing Regina,” she added.

She told two people at work about Experience Regina and its campaign Monday morning and says her colleagues laughed at it.

Jill Straker said she didn’t have any problems with it.

“I think it’s kind of tongue in cheek; it’s kind of fun,” Straker said. “I think some people have taken it out of context and (it’s supposed to be) more of a fun thing.”

She didn’t find it offensive.

“For me it’s a fun thing. People just have to take it with a grain of salt and just roll with it. That’s kind of my opinion,” she explained. “There’s worst things people could be worried about in life, so for this to kind of blow up and how public it’s been I think has been a bit kind of crazy.”

The City of Regina has yet to comment publicly on the online outrage from over the weekend, but one city councillor did respond to the controversy.

Coun. Cheryl Stadnichuk said she had no notice of the campaign slogans and she would not have approved them if she had seen them.

“It was not presented in an official way. We had no say in it. I was not aware of it. Once Experience Regina was launched, I was aware of that name change (from Tourism Regina) and that was all,” she said.

According to Stadnichuk, those who are responsible for the campaign and the messaging must provide an explanation to city council.

“We need more than an apology. I would like to know how this happened, who was involved in the decision-making and I think we need some other measure to ensure something like this never happens again,” she said.

Stadnichuk said there needs to be assurance to the public it won’t happen again. She believes the slogans are sending the wrong message.

“I spoke to a gentleman today who travels a lot and he used to defend the city wherever he went because he loved Regina. He said now he won’t be able to do that; he won’t be able to defend Regina with this kind of messaging,” Stadnichuk said.

She added when we’re trying to talk about consent and respect for people in an inclusive city, this kind of messaging does not do that.

“At the very least it makes women uncomfortable and I would say the majority goes beyond not feeling comfortable, it makes them angry and they feel like their bodies are being sexualized,” Stadnichuk explained.

She called this campaign a major fail.

“I’m extremely disappointed that this happened and I really hope that we can find a way to get some public respect back,” Stadnichuk said.

— With files from 980 CJME’s Lindsay Newman