Too subtle?

Yesterday, Mayor Faulconer addressed the leaders of the city’s Hospitality Union and gave them a sneak peak at his plan for attracting visitors to America’s Finest City in the upcoming year. The campaign, he said, was built to both attract and repel fans of San Diego’s many virtues.

“San Diego has a lot of things that a lot of other cities would love to have,” said Faulconer. “The beaches, the zoo, the theme parks, the beaches… But what we don’t have is affordable housing. Interest.com just names us the second least-affordable housing market in the country, after San Francisco. The last thing we need is a bunch of tourists to just show up and stick around. You know how it is: you go on vacation, everything is great, the weather’s nice, there’s no stress, and you look around and think, I could live here. Life is just better here. Next thing you know, you’ve put in for a transfer, your tarpaper shack in Kentucky is on the market, and you’re buying flip-flops and learning to eat sushi. And without even meaning to, you’ve just made it that much harder to buy a home in San Diego — not only for yourself, but for the people who were here before you. So we needed to make it clear: we love your tourist dollars, but we don’t need your property tax dollars.”

Faulconer said that the city’s initial idea was a Wizard of Oz–based campaign built around the slogan, “There’s no place like home.” Explained the mayor, “Dorothy had an exciting, colorful adventure in Oz, but at the end of the Yellow Brick Road, she didn’t want to stay in Emerald City — which, by the way, served as the inspiration for downtown’s Emerald Plaza. No, Dorothy wanted to go home to Kansas, to the people and places she knew and loved, even if it was drab and awful by comparison. We thought it would make a swell ad campaign: San Diego may be exciting like Oz, but after seven to ten days, it’s time to click your ruby red slippers and head on back to where you came from. Unfortunately, we couldn’t swing the rights. Still, I’m excited about what we did here.”

Screencaps taken from San Diego's new "Happiness is Calling" campaign. Are you sensing a theme?

Faulconer did admit that the new campaign contained an element of risk. “It’s a little edgy, I know. Some people might even find it aggressive. Personally, I think modern people today will appreciate the honesty. But just in case, we did come up with a backup idea: ‘Happiness is Calling.’ We even made a bunch of videos, which we’ll run as commercials and push out across the internet. I don’t want to give too much away, but let’s just say they play to our strengths.”

“Yessir,” concluded Faulconer, “the message is clear: whether you’re a pretty white girl in a bathing suit, or you enjoy looking at a pretty white girl in a bathing suit, or you just wish you looked like a pretty white girl in a bathing suit, San Diego is the place for you!”