Multi-year ad campaign urges American tourists to rethink visiting Alberta

CALGARY, July 14 /CNW/ - With the Calgary Stampede underway, billboards asking Americans to rethink their travel plans to Alberta rolled out across four major US cities today (cities that bring the most US tourists annually to Alberta) marking the first wave of a multi-year ad campaign aimed at revealing Alberta to be one of the world's dirtiest destinations.

The billboards by San Francisco-based Corporate Ethics International (the same group behind the Ava-Tar-Sands ad endorsing an Oscar for James Cameron) and which works with multiple environmental groups, including Friends of the Earth, Earthworks, Rainforest Action Network and ForestEthics, compare Alberta's Tar Sands with the BP oil spill in the Gulf.

"Alberta can't destroy an area the size of England by producing the world's most polluting oil and still be known for Banff," said Dr. Michael Marx, executive director of Corporate Ethics. "There is another oil disaster going on in Alberta every day and as more Americans become aware of it we believe they'll be less willing to support the province with their tourist dollars."

The first phase of the campaign consists of large (street-level) billboards in Denver, Portland, Seattle and Minneapolis, Google ads paired with key Alberta names and places like Banff, flash banner ads on high traffic tourism sites like Priceline.com and Discovery.com, a web site - rethinkalberta.com - and mail-outs to US tourism operators that specialize in Alberta tourism and professional associations that hold annual conferences in Alberta.

The next wave of the ad campaign will be launched in two weeks across the UK. The entire release and billboards can be found at http://corpethics.org/article.php?id=3951

For further information: Michael Marx, executive director Corporate Ethics, [phone], [phone] (cell)