New RV parks guide deemed tasteless

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- A new tourism advertisement could have made the Oklahoma Tourism Department the butt of jokes.

The ad shows a man from behind bending over his work with the question: Is your free time not all it's cracked up to be? "Oh my gosh," Tourism director Jane Jayroe said when she found out two weeks ago about the recreational vehicle Parks Guide put out by the department. Some 200,000 copies of the guide were delivered to her office.

The intent of the advertisement is to get people to use a Web site for information about what's happening in Oklahoma City. The ad was printed on the guides inside back cover.

Jayroe said she met with the printer, Resource Design Associates Inc., who agreed that the advertisement probably was inappropriate.

Still, the department already was committed to pay the $49,346 bill.

The entire publication could not be reprinted because it had to be in tourism centers across the state in time for the upcoming spring camping season.

The compromise: Put a red sticker over the offensive portion of the 200,000 ads at a cost of $3,500.

That's cheaper than reprinting all the covers, which would have cost $14,000, Jayroe said.

Jayroe said that future contracts will give her department the right to reject advertisements.