UPDATE! (see below. This post originally ran June 18)

Ever wonder if a single advertisement can cross all international boundaries? Apparently the California Travel and Tourism Commission thought there's would but quickly discovered that Japanese travelers took the advertisement below a little too literally:

"You want us to work on our vacation??"

So the commission's director Caroline Beteta showed the crowd gathered for the California Travel Industry Association meeting in Palm Desert the version her advertising firm made just for Japan. I've been searching YouTube and Google for it to no avail, so I will describe (it will have to do until I find the real version UPDATE! I FOUND THE REAL VERSION! Well actually, California Travel and Tourism sent it out via e-mail. Go to their site here and while you're there check out the print advertisements. Who needs rolling vistas and California landscapes when you've got Schwarzenegger.):

• Commercial opens on scene of blue skies and palm trees. "California" spelled out in gold, shimmering lettering resembling something crossed between the Old West and MTV's Super Sweet Sixteen logo pops on screen.
• Then the hyperactive Japanese game-show style camera work starts. Quick shot of Rodeo drive, then a quick cut to limos, then cut to the Hollywood sign with two very enthusastic young Japanese women who give the camera (what I recall) a thumbs up and yell something in Japanese (no translation).
• But then the narrarator says something and the two suddenly look disappointed, or confused (not sure which).
• The commercial slows down and the music becomes serene. The two Japanese women walk into a winery, clink glasses, then eat oversized sandwiches on a patio with a vista view.
• The end.

It really makes me wonder what they would think of these New Mexico ads:

-- Kimberly Pierceall
kpierceall@PE.com

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