Masters says Experience Regina slogans were ‘tone deaf,’ but still believes in campaign

It’s said that there’s no such thing as bad press.

But the City of Regina has received a lot of backlash from the rebrand of the tourism organization Tourism Regina to Experience Regina.

The campaign featured slogans like “Show us your Regina” and “The city that rhymes with fun,” which many have called sexist and inappropriate.

Mayor Sandra Masters admitted on Tuesday’s Gormley that the slogans were inappropriate, but she still thinks the campaign and rebrand are salvageable.

“We rewind back to last Thursday’s launch; I think so much of the brand and the campaign and the underlying vision and strategy behind it are so good,” she told Gormley guest host Taylor MacPherson.

“What went on the website — some of the slogans, per se — should have been left to the brands that would normally run with it or the T-shirt makers or whoever, not (with groups) necessarily representing the city.”

Masters said she attended a tourism brand preview at the beginning of March, and she liked what she had seen then. But she said she was not aware of any of the controversial slogans until the official launch.

“The brand that we saw when the slogans made it onto the website clearly was frankly leading into what folks have said about us for a long time,” she said.

“But for an organization that is intending to represent 245,000 people, it crossed the line for sure in terms of slogans.”

Some have called for the resignation of Experience Regina’s Tim Reid on social media.

“The CEO (of Experience Regina) reports into a board of directors,” she said. “I did reach out to the board chair; we’ve had that discussion. They’ve got a board meeting this week, I believe, where they’re going to see beyond two apologies what more happens and where this gets in terms of issues.”

Masters said city councillors can ask the board for Reid’s resignation if they want to by vote, but Experience Regina is ultimately an autonomous organization.

Masters said personally that if it were up to her, she would not have Reid fired.

“I think two slogans in an otherwise completely outstanding campaign may be a little tone deaf, but I’m not interested in completely skewering people for making mistakes because I can tell you as a mayor of a city in the country that we make mistakes,” Masters said.

Masters said this would be an opportunity to acknowledge responsibility and do proper consultation moving forward.