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From the New Europe: Marketing beautiful women to tourists
God help us! Prague has unveiled its latest desperate attempt to find a new identity and market it to tourists. I hope you are ready. The punchline, in essence, is: Come here because we have beautiful women. (And architecture, but really, who cares. Too many syllables in that word.)
As you can see from this video ad, the Czech supermodel Petra Nemcova and last year's Miss World, Tatana Kucharova, with a kitschy backdrop of the Prague Castle, are trying to tell you that you should come to Prague because--quite frankly--everyone here looks like this and lives like this.
Before you buy your ticket, let me warn you:
- Not all Czech women look like this
- In fact, most Czech women do not look like this
- Those who do look like this are--don't take this the wrong way--not waiting around to meet you. Unless of course, you are rich and famous
- Did I mention not all Czech women look like this?
- Although prices are certainly becoming top-notch, the service in a lot of "luxury places" in Prague still isn't
- Then again: the Champagne they are drinking will always be there. Mercifully, the girls in the ad are not drinking beer and eating roast pork because that would make it just unbearable cheesy in a traditional culture kind of way.
I feel bad for this beautiful city sometimes. Right after the Revolution, Prague city officials were happy to get anyone to
come here and spend precious hard currency. Then, they got tired of the "broke backpacker crowd" so they started marketing to the "cultured tourist": Prague has great live music, amazing architecture...you get the idea.
That didn't really work, either. Although Prague has great, talented musicians, you are still better off going to see opera in Vienna (granted, not as cheaply). So, they went back to the party crowd, marketing to semi-wealthy Western European folks to come here for the weekend and party it up. That is, in a nutshell, how we ended up with a bunch of stag-party types from the UK throwing up all over Prague's mediaeval cobblestones.
With the new spot, apparently, we want to attract the "luxury travel people", who like to engage in expensive Champagne-drinking with a view of Gothic spires while exhibiting their latest supermodel girlfriend.
I wonder what kind of undesirable Eurotrash crowd this will attract. Do I smell Gucci opening a store?
Filed under: Arts and Culture, Europe, Czech Republic
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Nick May 9th 2008 5:08AM
Prague is a beautiful city, and I, for the most part, enjoyed being there. Unfortunately though, the most vivid memory I have is how the city completely transforms after dark...I'm still surprised at the amount of prostitutes and African drug dealers that clung to my arms as I made my with through Wenceslas Square and Old Town.
I'd love to go back, but I will wait a few years and hope that things like that are cleaned up a bit.
Rob Brooks-Bilson May 8th 2008 1:18PM
Please, not another Gucci store. Everywhere I go these days from Manila to Phoenix to Oahu has the same homogenized "luxury" boutiques. I mean really, who goes traveling just so that they can shop at the same stores they have at home? It's something I'll never understand.
Iva Skoch May 9th 2008 5:55AM
I am with you on that. Everyone complains about globalization, yet somehow people like to go to the same stores in Paris, Hong Kong and Prague...
kevjohn May 8th 2008 1:27PM
It's nothing new to use beautiful women to try to advertise your company. Have you seen some of the ads some Caribbean countries put out? I suppose they should advertise their slums and ugly residents instead?
kevjohn May 8th 2008 1:28PM
I meant to say country instead of company. But I guess it applies either way.
ilona May 8th 2008 5:11PM
well when america advertises florida...you put pretty girls on beaches ..also carlifornia does not have a problem advertising woman with 64 teeth and huge fake boops....than when you get here ..lol you have prostitudes ,gangsters, drugdealers...i recall european tourists getting mugged and killed in florida some years back...and honestly american woman dont look either like the ones you do your advertising with ...so what was your piont again.....
Iva Skoch May 9th 2008 5:59AM
The difference is huge, I think: the one you are describing is hidden messaging (putting pretty women--models who get paid for it--in ads because people like to look at them) and a blatant "Come here because we have beautiful women." The women in the ad are actually real Czech women; not just random models...and they give it the illusion of authenticity.
Donna Manning May 8th 2008 10:16PM
If you want to get there on time, Fly Southwest Airlines!
Iva Skoch May 9th 2008 6:03AM
Thanks, everyone, for your comments! I am actually glad most of you don't find this ad as ridiculous as I do. After all, it is an ad aimed at you, not me :-)
I am just worried people will be coming here wanting me to take them some place where "the girls from the ad" hang out. Believe me, it's happened before.
DJ May 9th 2008 10:47AM
Lots of Eastern European prostitutes there, too...a lot of Europeans go there for their "stag" parties, because flights are cheap within Europe. So, all you brides to be, make sure your honey has a few Trojans packed if he tells you he's going on holiday with the guys before the wedding. There are plenty of women willing to entertain him while he's away from you!