Rethink Alberta travel campaign strikes a chord
Posted Aug 9, 2010 7:31 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The results of a new survey conducted by Angus Reid show a controversial anti-oilsands billboard and internet campaign is producing its desired result.
Pollster Mario Canseco tells the Calgary Herald before watching the video, about half of the some four thousand people they surveyed in Canada, the US and the UK, stated they would visit Alberta.
However, after watching the Rethink Alberta video on YouTube, complete with pictures of oil-soaked ducks, support for such a trip fell to just about 25 per cent.
Canseco calls the results devastating and says the province should not discount the potential fallout from the video ad, which has already had more than 18,000 hits on YouTube.
The Executive Director of Sierra Club Canada tells 660News he’s not surprised.
John Bennett says it’s sad that environmentalists now have to target other industries like tourism in order to get the Stelmach goverment to sit up and listen.
Bennett says instead of waging a public relations battle, the Alberta government should get busy addressing the polluting problems associated with oilsands development.
Last week, the province announced it was going to spend $268-thousand in taxpayer money to get out what it calls the “real oilsands story.”
