MATT O’BRIEN, Associated Press
JENNIFER McDERMOTT, Associated Press
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The state’s top marketing official, who oversaw the disastrous rollout of a tourism campaign that included a video mistakenly featuring a scene from Iceland, resigned on Friday.
Gov. Gina Raimondo said she accepted Betsy Wall’s resignation and added that the state also would drop part of a new logo, the tagline “Cooler & Warmer.” The tagline was designed by Milton Glaser, creator of the iconic “I Love NY” logo, but it left many people scratching their heads.
Raimondo, a Democrat, said it was unacceptable how many mistakes were made in the tourism campaign rollout and people need to be held accountable because the state deserves better.
“As I dug into it a little bit and realized just how poor of a job was done, I got pretty mad myself,” she said. “These were sloppy, just unacceptable mistakes.”
The video, which briefly showed the prominent Harpa concert hall in Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik, was mocked on social media and made international news. Embarrassed state tourism officials quickly yanked the video off YouTube on Tuesday.
The Iceland mistake was one of several controversies that dominated discussion in Rhode Island and far beyond its borders since the tourism campaign rolled out on Monday night. The scrutiny of the video led to the discovery of numerous errors and outdated material on a newly redesigned tourism website that said Rhode Island is home to 20 percent of the country’s historic landmarks — instead of less than 2 percent.
Many residents also were unhappy about the new state logo and the “Cooler & Warmer” motto.
Wall lives in Massachusetts and led its tourism bureau until last year. She also made an embarrassing admission during an interview with Gene Valicenti on WPRO-AM during the week when she acknowledged she was unfamiliar with Gaspee Days, a popular local festival.
Wall earlier this week said she took primary responsibility for the rollout mistakes.
“These are small elements of a large marketing program,” she said at the time. “I know it’s creating a lot of laughs and emotion, but this is a 2-second error. This was not an attempt to deceive people or embellish. This was a mistake.”
An editing company took responsibility for the video mix-up. The state’s economic development agency, the Rhode Island Commerce Corp., said it shared the blame since it hired the vendor.
Two of Raimondo’s communications officials said they noticed an unfamiliar scene in the video the Friday before the rollout but were assured that all scenes were filmed in Rhode Island.
