Regina is the capital of Saskatchewan, a plains city of 230,000 situated some 240 miles northwest of Minot, ND. It was named for Queen Victoria, because she was a regent, I guess. Its relevance to this post has to do with the way it's pronounced - Regina rhymes with a female body part.
Hold that thought. We'll get back to it, because it's only part of the story.
Tourism Regina recently rebranded, and in so doing, proved that the town wasn't above poking gentle fun at itself. The new name of the tourism bureau, Experience Regina, was lifted from a parodic 2008 song and video created by a pair of Americans who visited the city. It's most excellent in its desert dry humor and earnest tunesmansmith:
Experience Regina commissioned a hip new version as its launch video. It's still pretty great:
Up to this point in the story, we haven't offended any local sensibilities. We've got a bit of self-aware humor, some typically Canadian self-effacing presentation, and some neat civic scenes. Experience Regina probably should've stopped there.
Instead, they amped it up. In addition to the new song, the rebranding campaign added a bit more colorful elements. Sexed it up a bit, if you will. New slogans accompanied the launch, including, "Show us your Regina!" and "Regina rhymes with fun!"
The backlash was predictable and swift. While some Reginans (Reginites, Regineers, Reggies?) were amused, opposing reactions ran from embarrassed ("Well it happened. We live in a real-life meme.") to angry (said one Facebook commenter, "We will see how funny this is the first time a woman is assaulted and asked to “show us your Regina”"), to baffled, ("The only thing more idiotic than this rebranding are the people who cleared it").
Experience Regina quickly backtracked, issuing a statement of regret. Said CEO Tim Reid, “There was such positive feedback around Experience Regina; however, it was clear that we fell short of what is expected from our amazing community with some of the slogans that we used. Regardless of our intent, the impact is valid, and for that, we apologize.”
So I think we've all learned a lesson here. Whimsy, good. Self-effacing humor, excellent. References to female body parts as a component of a public campaign, perhaps not in the best of taste.
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