State Rep. Files Open Records Request for "Cooler and Warmer" PR

NORTH KINGSTOWN, RI—Rep. Doreen Costa has filed a open records request with the Governor's office in an effort to get records "dealing with the tourism campaign video and marketing budget."

Costa said in a Thursday morning news release that she was "underwhelmed" by the quality of work behind the just-released new tourism PR campaign that has been met with much criticism, notably for the vague "Cooler and Warmer" slogan, shark-fin-like sailboat logo and a series of roil-out mishaps. Along with footage from Iceland appearing in a minute-and-a-half long promo video that has since been pulled from YouTube, the revamped visitrhodeisland.com website was found to include generic stock images and factual errors, including the absurd claim that the Ocean State is home to 20 percent of the nation's historic landmarks.

Costa, who represents North Kingstown and Exter as District 31's representative in the State House, said that she wants "an itemized budget for this tourism project as well as an itemized list of expenses that have been incurred to date."

Costa has been an opposed to hiring out of state companies to work on Rhode Island PR projects, she said, and the use of stock footage of foreign places in the video and website is proof that the issues "could have been avoided if we hired people who know Rhode Island.

"We have many talented people here who could have done a better job than what we received," she said.

The $4.5 million statewide tourism campaign was unveiled Monday night in a conference room at the headquarters of CommerceRI, formerly the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation. The agency is in charge of of the new campaign.

According to figures released by CommerceRI, famed designer Milton Glaser and his team were paid $400,000 for the design of the new logo. Glaser is the man behind the "I ♥ NY" slogan.

Of the $5m campaign budget so far, CommerceRI reports that more $2 million has already been spent, of which $1.28 million is to buy advertising, revamp the website and public relations and fees.

CommerceRI officials said they are scrubbing the website to fix errors and address the myriad problems, which included a picture of a now-deceased chef, another chef who moved to Boston and other errors. In a scathing commentary on the Rhode Island Public Radio website, Scott McKay does a fine job outlining the fiasco.