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Apparently, the citizens of Regina in Canada didn’t like the slogans used by the tourism board: “Show Us Your Regina” and “The City That Rhymes With Fun.”
“I want to start by apologizing, on behalf of myself and our team, for the negative impact we created with elements of our recent brand launch,” Tim Reid, CEO of Experience Regina (formerly Tourism Regina), wrote in a social media post.
“It was clear that we fell short of what is expected from our amazing community with some slogans that we used.”
https://twitter.com/ExpRegina/status/1637586812427468801
On Monday, in an interview with CBC, Reid said that he and the tourism board learned over the weekend that “we just went too far.”
“The city didn’t appreciate it and our community didn’t appreciate it and we just were wrong,” Reid added.
He also admitted that some of the marketing tactics they used, like the slogans, “bumped into sexuality” and “crossed the line on some of the poking fun at ourselves around our city name.”
Councilwoman Cheryl Stadnichuk wrote on Facebook on Monday, “Do we want men harassing women in bars chanting ‘show us your Regina?'”
“When your seven-year-old can’t — shouldn’t, probably — explain the slogan of your city then that’s a problem, don’t you think?” said Kristen McLeod, a former Tourism Regina board member.
This is not the first time Regina has had to deal with their city name rhyming with a female body part.
In 2018, Jimmy Fallon played the “Experience Regina” song on The Tonight Show, which the Tourist Board of Saskatchewan first released in 2008.
Also, in October of 2022, a “I Love Regina” sign that had been located in front of city hall since 2004 was removed and replaced with plants.
CBC reported that “media outlets were not provided a reason for the decision” other than it being “outdated branding.”