Town apologises for sexualising travel ads: 'Gross'

A new tourism campaign promoting the Canadian city of Regina has been slammed as "gross" and "misogynistic" by locals.

Tourism officials of the city of Regina (which rhymes with vagina) in Saskatchewan thought the slogan "Show us your Regina" would be a good one to go to in 2023. They added the slogan "The city that rhymes with fun."

In their defense, the thought the slogan was a clever way to encourage the sharing of photos of tourists enjoying the destination along with the hashtag #showusyourregina.

The campaign is a play on song used in the city's 2008 campaign which urged travelers to "experience Regina" and which did the rounds on talk shows and social media, attracting approximately 700,000 YouTube views.

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From "experience Regina" in 2008 now comes "Show us your Regina" and "The City that rhymes with fun" which isn't landing as tourism officials had hoped.

Paul Dechene on Twitter writes: "Once you notice it, it's hard to imagine this made onto the internet. As Experience Regina's inaugural public engagement campaign no less."

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"Of course a man would be in charge of this joke of a campaign," one commented on the campaign. "Offensiveness aside it's super cringe and dated humor. You can be clever without resorting to trashy slogans."

Another commented: "Do better. This is pathetic and disgusting."

The campaign has come with social media posts as well as merchandise such as t-shirts and hoodies.

Tourism board member Kristen McLeod also commented on the new ad campaign, telling CBC: "It's sexualising the city when it isn't necessary.

Local councilwoman Cheryl Stadnichuk said she was "incredibly disappointed and appalled" by the campaign.

"The slogans associated with the campaign, however, are misogynist and objectify women's bodies," she wrote. "As one woman pointed out on social media, would we engage school children with this messaging? I also ask, do we want men harassing women in bars chanting 'Show us your Regina?'"

Social studies professor Cindy Hanson described the campaign as "misogynistic" and "toxic."

"And Saskatchewan and Regina have among the highest rates of violence against women in this country," she continued. "It's unconscionable that we would actually consider this fun."

Experience Regina CEO Tim Reid has issued a public apology following the backlash.

"I want to start by apologising, on behalf of myself and our team, for the negative impact we created with elements of our recent brand launch," he said in a statement released on Sunday. "It was clear that we fell short of what is expected from our amazing community with some slogans that we used.

"We crossed the line on some of the poking fun at ourselves around our city name," he added.