Some City Officials Think Best Western TV Spot Maybe Thorn in Marketing Side

Thursday, February 24th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

The people who promote the City of Tulsa are losing sleep over a television commercial for Best Western Hotels. The mayor is unhappy, the chamber is fuming, but some Tulsans are simply just laughing about it.

The commercial starts out with one companyâ€™s executive walking into the office of his employee. "Hey, just talked to Roy,â€ says the executive in the spot. â€œHe needs you in Tulsa first thing tomorrow, 10 am. The employee given the assignment then proceeds to pass the project on down the line. She walks in to the office of her employee and says, â€œGood news, I'm going to give you this Tulsa thing tomorrow.â€

The tone of the thirty-second spot, implying no one would want to visit Tulsa, has upset many folks at city hall. The mayor fired off a letter to the hotel chain saying Best Western is promoting itself at the expense of Tulsa. She wants them to change the commercial to reflect either Dubuque or Waco which is the home of Best Western executives.

Even the Tulsa Chamber of Commerce president wants the ad pulled "I think their advertising campaign is extremely insensitive," said Tulsa chamber president Jay Clemens. â€œI'd like to see them run an ad that says, 'We've been to Tulsa and it's a great city.â€™â€

The News on Six spoke to several people in downtown Tulsa Thursday who had seen the commercial. Many of them were not offended. â€œI think it's OK,â€ said Tulsan Cheryl Smith. â€œI think it's not derogatory. Itâ€™s kind of funny really.â€ Another Tulsan, Joanna Starkey said, â€œMaybe if they didn't look so disappointed that they were coming here.â€
â€œI think they've doing a disservice to Tulsa,â€ said Tulsan Roger Marley.

While some people think the Best Western commercial is funny and others think it's disparaging, at least one person thinks the mayor and the chamber may be complaining too much, because the ad has an element of truth in it. "I don't think it makes us look bad, because that's the opinion the rest of the country has about Oklahoma,â€ said Emily Roderick.

Tulsa's image is an ongoing battle at the chamber. They even poke fun at it in their own marketing campaign with an ad that includes the line -- â€œTulsa? Do you have any idea why they chose Tulsa? Do you think we could change their minds?â€