The See America Campaign

Tourism ads have a long tradition of promoting national or regional stereotypes. Promotions for the Mediterranean countries invariably feature olives and carafes of wine and families dining joyfully in crumbly old courtyards at sunset; Australia is all sun, sea, sand and surf; Ireland, billing itself as the Island of Memories, flaunts quaint pubs with cracking company and low white cottages on hills above windswept shores.

Truths are pushed aside to make way for the familiar, comfortable impressions that entice foreign visitors. The See America "films" campaign, produced by the Travel Industry Association of America in collaboration with the Department of Commerce, and airing specifically within the United Kingdom, takes this approach but carries it out in shorthand. The TV commercial consists simply of the title screens of a handful of Hollywood movies, with bland Hollywood score music and a direct tagline displayed in a Hollywood golden-age typeface ...

You've seen the films ...
Now visit the set.
SeeAmerica.org.uk

When the United Kingdom, like a lot of the world, is already drowning in images of America from imported entertainment, there's no need for elaboration. Hollywood has already done the hard work. Every one of its movies is an ad for the United States (although the films used in the See America commercial — Maid in Manhattan, Chicago, Miami Blues, LA Story, Sweet Home Alabama and Viva Las Vegas — were clearly picked for having place names in their titles rather than their outstanding quality, box-office success, or any deep, longstanding impressions on the British psyche).

It's been common knowledge for some time that there are differences between Hollywood's America and the real America. It's a discrepancy that has been present throughout American history, but it hasn't stopped generation after generation being lured to the United States, to live the very dreams offered by Hollywood.

The TIA is aware of this. "Market research," it says, "indicates that the popularity of American entertainment is a substantial motivator for people to visit the United States to experience it for themselves."

And yet, the TV commercial feels forced and sickly oppressive. It has nothing to do with the quality of the films used; rather, the answer involves the "special relationship" between the United States and the United Kingdom, and the strains the bond has begun to show in the past few years.

"Many factors were taken into consideration in choosing the United Kingdom as the market in which to focus this initiative," says the TIA, "[but] two specific reasons stand out: it is the United States' largest overseas market, with over four million visitors expected to travel between the United Kingdom and the United States in 2004, generating $12 billion for the American economy; and the United Kingdom has proven to be the most resilient of the international markets following the events of 2001."

The financial stream of the special relationship is tapped. With the dollar performing so badly away from home, it makes sense to boost inward travel to the United States. Who're you gonna call? Why, the dependable Brits, of course! They won't let you down ... even if the $12 billion they come up with is but a drop in the bucket of the total national debt.

These statistics and reasoning are buried on the SeeAmerica.org.uk website, so few of the commercial's viewers are likely to be aware of them. No matter; they're not needed to turn people off. The commercial's ignorant tone, and its timing, are enough.

In recent years — since the "events of 2001," in fact — the United States and its actions have come under great scrutiny. The UK media have done a pretty good job of reporting on the war on terrorism and the war in Iraq, as well as the Bush administration's approach towards the environment, nuclear defense, religion and science and the economy of this country.

It's increasingly clear to even a casual observer (if there is such a thing; everyone has more at stake now) that all is not well in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. Throughout the recent election campaign, the United States was portrayed incessantly as a bitterly divided country. The TIA's campaign mentions none of this; in relationship terms, the US is carrying on as though nothing were wrong. She's sending out mixed messages: on the one hand, more seductive cutaways of New York brownstones and a still-telegenic population; on the other, a legion of gun-wielding religious zealots whose "moral values" led them to vote for the most disastrous president in living memory.

In this climate — with that president's inauguration just past the corner, and disbelief at his re-election continuing to suppurate — the TIA's campaign comes across as patronizing. By promoting the USA as "a set," a lifeless, static backdrop, the TIA and the Department of Commerce are flogging a giant Potemkin village, neatly ignoring a vast, hidden interior that lives by increasingly alien values.

Unfortunately, the United Kingdom now knows more about that hidden interior, and its sway with the country's leaders. It's still entirely possible to experience Entertainment, of course, on a week's break to Disney World and Universal Studios in Florida or a sightseeing trip to the Big Apple. And, undoubtedly, people will want to. But there's an acknowledgement that it's not the real thing. It's always been there, as part of the special relationship — a forgiving component of the affinity. It has a disclaimer, though: it is not guaranteed, and will not suffer being taken for granted. Which is exactly what the See America TV commercial does. The United Kingdom doesn't want America's current reality, but it is still — just — prepared to buy the myths. What it won't tolerate is being sold them.

The TIA predicts that visits to the United States from the United Kingdom will rise by 11 percent over the next two years. If the USA continues on as divergent a diplomatic course in Bush's second term as it did in his first, holiday-makers might not continue to be so forgiving — people just want to relax on holiday, without having to practice the tricky art of Doublethink.

— Louis Cooke (louis@mintcake.com)

— graphic by Matt Finley (mtfinley@mailbox.syr.edu/a>)