Volume 1, No. 20. November 20, 2001
Storm watch
Face it, the Newport Aquarium in Newport, Kentucky, seems unusually blessed.
Thanks to its exhibit "Guardians of the Deep" featuring rare South
African sharks, the Cincinnati-area aquarium earned unprecedented news coverage
in the late summer when Ohio and Kentucky journalists seeking a local angle
during the media frenzy over the East Coast shark attacks visited the aquarium
in droves (LOOP, September
21, 2001).
Ironically, publicity for that exhibit had prompted a media outcry back in May, thanks to a television commercial which resembled a news bulletin featuring fictional reporter Gail Storm broadcasting that sharks had been sighted in the Ohio River, on which the Newport Aquarium sits. Two Kentucky TV stations, one in Louisville, one in Lexington, pulled the commercial two weeks after they started running. "Neither received complaints, but the general managers were worried that the commercial was so close to TV reports and they would be perceived as actual news," said Genine Drozd, the aquarium's public relations assistant.
What was Kentucky's worry is Ohio's
reward. That same commercial has received a Ruby Award from the Ohio Travel
Association. The association judges tourism promotions for impact, singularity,
the effectiveness of the message's delivery and a five-second test of instant
recognition. Though the aquarium sits in Kentucky, it promotes tourism to the
Cincinnati area, making it eligible for the prize.
Drozd submitted the spot for Ruby consideration, oblivious to the storm of protest
Gail Storm created when she debuted. "If you think about it, people in those
markets should know who their local newscasters are," said Drozd, noting that
the ad was used on several stations and so never showed a newscast logo. "And
it's almost too ridiculous to think there's really sharks in the Ohio River."
Winning the Ruby, she said, exonerates the commercial's success at being realistic but fun. Much like an aquarium.