South Carolina is so gay!

[Louis VI the Fat]

Gah! The person responsible for the ad campaign ought to be promoted to a federal tourist bureau, not fired.

Gays are just another demographic, like single travellers, families with kids, singles, Jews, ethnic minorities, adventure seekers or culture lovers.

And the specifics of the gay demography make them extremely desirable tourists: a lot of DINKY's (double income, no kids) with matching large disposable incomes; there are few places on this planet that gays can travel to in dignity or even safety, which is a big boon for those places that do welcome gays; and gays are very much concentrated in big cities - with all the cultural preferences and high incomes that brings.

Everybody is fighting for the gay tourist market. In the civilised world they are at least, ie, Northwest Europe and assorted spots elsewhere. And I dare say that most gays on top of their head would only ever name New York and San Fransisco as places they'd like to visit. So, an ambitious, clever, great marketeer starts a campaign to inform affluent London gays (a million or so?) that America is also Savannah, and Atlanta, and South Carolina, and that it has more culture than any European cares to admit - that America, in short, is full sights to behold. And next he finds himself fired by an unholy alliance of hicks and fundamentalists. What a disgrace. What a pantomime.

What's next? People being fired for promoting America as a great place to visit for European Jews? Like, imagine all those Jews engaging in sex in America when they come over? An ad campaign advertising America as a great place for taking your children on holiday being pulled for promoting paedophilia? Advertising America's enormous natural parks - surely an invitation for nature lovers to engage in bestiality?
And don't say these examples are silly. We all know how slippery slopes work...