Boy, this is the scandal that won’t die!
Recently released emails reveal that South Carolina’s Tourism honcho, Chad Prosser, explicitly requested the controversial “So Gay” adverts stay up in London.
Once the scandal broke, however, Prosser and his colleagues told the press they were unaware of the campaign and, once made aware, tried to put a stop to it. That story’s a little shaky:
After the posters were put on London subway walls, state tourism officials heard about them. [And] Prosser said the state would not pay the nearly $5,000 for its share of the campaign, saying he doesn’t think it’s appropriate to use state tourism marketing funds to support any specific social agenda.
But PRT emails obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that, on July 3, Prosser told his staff the state would take part in the campaign. The email to London says, “Per Chad’s direction as of 4:40 p.m. today, (July 3) DO NOT ask the vendor to remove South Carolina from the campaign.”
The story broke on July 11th, at which point lawmakers had already squashed the campaign.
When asked about the email yesterday, Prosser admitted he requested the posters not be removed, but not because he endorsed their message: There was nothing that could be done to pull it. The campaign was going to end before that whole chain of events could take place.” Removing the posters and the accompanying outcry, he said, would have created a public relations nightmare. Too late.
How about we take this to the next level?
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amro worldwide
I’m Andrew Roberts, Chief Executive of Amro Worldwide, the gay travel company that placed the adverts on the London Tube in conjuction with New Orleans, Atlanta, Boston, Washington, DC and Las Vegas. Thank you for the excellent reporting of this story which does seem to run and run largely due to the confused responses emanating from SC PRT.
This was a campaign targeted at getting more gay men and women from the UK to visit South Carolina and the other destinations featured. Amro Worldwide is a licensed UK travel company featuring destinations throughout the world – we invite your readers to check this out by visiting our website at http://www.amroworldwide.com.
Amro Worldwide had not even planned to include SC initially – they pursued us seeking to become involved.
We have seen an upswing in interest for the other destinations featured in the campaign — but we are saddened that areas of South Carolina which need tourist dollars will not benefit and may even suffer as a result of the SC PRT response.
Here’s hoping that in the long run gays and lesbians can be made to feel respected and welcomed by the SC tourism industry.
Arron
As a gay man in SC, my mission is to keep making SC so gay.
I’m just surprised this wasn’t squashed immediately.