MP’s meeting over campaign
Bury St Edmunds MP David Ruffley will meet with a tourism boss to discuss a proposed promotional campaign for Suffolk which has been mired by criticism.
Mr Ruffley will voice his concerns to Keith Brown, chief executive of Visit East Anglia, over the social media campaign that brands Suffolk the ‘Curious County’.
He arranged the meeting at his House of Commons office for Thursday October 25 following complaints from constituents.
Mr Ruffley said: “I have had lots of negative comments about it. I was at the county harvest festival where people from across Suffolk said ‘what a dreadful idea and word to use about Suffolk’.
“If you say something is curious then nine times out of 10 what you really mean is that it is odd or strange. It doesn’t strike the right note with members of the public.”
The campaign was unveiled at the Visit East Anglia conference, in Ipswich, on September 27.
When asked by the Bury Free Press about the furore over the campaign, Mr Brown said people had jumped to the ‘wrong conclusions that we are rebranding Suffolk as the Curious County’.
He explained: “The actual campaign is designed to reach younger people through social media channels. To do that we have to create interest and the curious campaign was devised in order to do that.
“The actual campaign will hit the airwaves next spring.
“It has given people the chance to say whether they like it or not which is all welcome contribution. The only disappointment is that a lot of people think this is a major rebranding of Suffolk which it is not. It’s purely a campaign to explore the social media channels.”
He added that businesses across the county had been consulted.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Bury St Edmunds
Wednesday 19 June 2013
Today
Light showers
Temperature: 13 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Light rain
Temperature: 12 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: East
