"On a trip to Europe you want to see interesting and unsual things. Just not in your hotel"
Aug 5th, 2002, 07:29 AM
#24
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Didn't say that the blandness of Holiday Inns doesn't appeal to people, Huh? Obviously it does. And that's the point of the ad we're talking about here, promoting blandness. After all, the ad is geared toward people who don't want to see anything "interesting" in their hotel.
Aug 5th, 2002, 10:40 AM
#25
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I don't think the picture has anything to do with the text in any literal sense; it's not intended to suggest that Holiday Inn customers don't want to see Germans/locals in their hotels. The picture was obviously taken outside somewhere, not in the hotel, and then dropped into the ad as a random example of an "interesting and unusual thing" one might find in Europe - negative associations implied. HI should know their customer base and perhaps research has shown that Germans, pretzels, and beer are outside the realm of experience for their typical "guest". (Or else it's just a case of snooty Brits having a laugh at the stereotype of insulated Americans, since it looks like this ad ran in the US market.)<BR><BR>Dip, actually, if John G objects to this ad, he can contact Holiday Inn and complain. If enough people do, they'll pull it - that's how advertising works. You don't have to have a legitimate reason for the complaint (although I am saying that John does not), it's all subjective. Family Values people are always organizing campaigns to get ads they perceive as racy or immoral removed from various media - think naked Sophie Dahl on the YSL ad, even tho' she was so airbrushed she might well have been wearing a bodystocking. And if people are confused by a "simple pop-culture ad", it's probably not a very good ad in the first place.
Aug 5th, 2002, 11:20 AM
#27
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I want to defend American style hotels in Europe. You can stay in them or not as you wish. However some people seem to despise their very existence and the people who stay in them.<BR><BR>I usually can't afford them but once in Italy when I had the flu and my husband had a toothache we were in no mood for cultural complications so, yes, we went to a Holiday Inn. It was so soothingly familiar. They took care of us and we were so grateful.
Aug 5th, 2002, 01:00 PM
#32
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Hate to shock you all, but Holiday Inn is NOT an American chain any more. It's part of Six Continents, PLC, which is British.<BR><BR>Second, as Marty said above, I think the German guy was supposed to be an illustration of "interesting and unusual," not an illustration of the kinds of things you don't want to find in your hotel. But the ad was not very well done, so that's unclear.
Aug 5th, 2002, 01:12 PM
#34
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Well, it doesn't really matter if they are British owned or not, it touts being an American style hotel and still panders to the fears or prejudices of some Americans. And suggests not venturing out into a country where you might come across some locals. Or if you do venture out you can come back to your hotel for your pablum. <BR>
Aug 5th, 2002, 01:32 PM
#36
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It took me around 2 minutes to determine that Holiday Inn's advertising agency is Fallon McElligott (now Fallon International) of Minneapolis. It may be that the senior marketing people at Holiday Inn are less than super-sensitive sophisticates like all of you, but my hunch is that the truth is that a twenty-something marketing grunt at Holiday Inn simply endorsed an ad composed by another twenty-something "creative" staffer at Fallon, neither of whom have probably been to Europe, and couldn't afford a Holiday Inn anyway. Besides, just when have you ever discerned that anybody at any Holiday Inn ever gave a hoot about someone's feelings?
Aug 5th, 2002, 01:54 PM
#37
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<BR>Yes it was already mentioned that Holiday Inn is now British owned. But it was also mentioned that Holiday Inn still bills itself as "America's Hotel for 50 Years". <BR><BR>The ad is saying that, if you are a Holiday Inn kind of person, you don't want to see interesting and unusal things in your hotel. In otherwords, you, the Holiday Inn person, want uninteresting and usual in your hotel. Nothing wrong with that. Holiday Inn knows their market.
Aug 5th, 2002, 02:14 PM
#38
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http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/wooda/195/syllabus7bel6.html<BR><BR>"Movement and national identity"<BR><BR>Despite a brief heyday in the 40s and 50s, single-owner motels headed for extinction, replaced by the Wal-Mart of the day, Holiday Inn. <BR><BR>Where Americans had previously sought small comforts from unique individuals, they grew to trust nationally advertised chains that offered standardized services along the new interstate highways. <BR><BR>The age of mobility was an age of increasing homogeneity where the best surprise became "no surprise."' <BR><BR>
Aug 5th, 2002, 02:50 PM
#39
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No, Janice, people don't have to stay home because they want a "soothingly familiar" hotel room to come back to at the end of the day. Most relatively new chain hotels in Europe, Asia, and elsewhere have the same style and amenities as a traditional American-style hotel, regardless of whether they are American-owned or not. Obviously this hotel style is what many travelers around the world, American or not, have come to expect of modern hotels. As someone else pointed out, would you refuse to stay at a Novotel, Sofitel, etc. also, since they all have essentially the same style as an American chain hotel? Why single out Holiday Inn for this criticism simply because they mention the chain's American origin in their ads?
Aug 5th, 2002, 03:03 PM
#40
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You don't get the point, yyy. It is the dumbing down of any public, whatever country. It is like saying to a German, visit America, but come back to the fold, so you won't have to see the foolish Americans wearing baseball caps, drinking diet coke. <BR>It is an insult, but I agree they know their market.
