TheBuzz
TheBuzz
Beach Battle!
Image-stealing Bermuda attempts
to lay claim to better sand than HawaiiIt's getting ugly. Visitor officials in Bermuda are now claiming their beaches are better and prettier than Hawaii's. Department of Tourism Minister Renee Webb told the Royal Gazette newspaper in Hamilton this week "Bermuda's beaches can outdo Hawaii's beaches any day, and I have been to Hawaii."
Fighting words. Mudslinging, only with sand.
It was revealed Feb. 28 that the Bermuda Department of Tourism used photographs taken in Hawaii, possibly the Seychelles and Florida as part of its latest advertising campaign to promote Bermuda.
Webb says the phones are ringing off the hook in response.
The Bermuda-Hawaii photo substitution has received international attention and several follow-ups in the Gazette.
STAR-BULLETIN / FILE
This is a Hawaii beach. Pay attention to it, because other isle beaches have shown up in ads for Bermuda.
The switch is not so shocking to Hawaii scenic photographer Douglas Peebles.
"I've had people buy photos of mine and use them as other places," he said, citing a client in Florida, real estate developers and a bar and restaurant that uses one of his photos on a billboard.
It doesn't happen all the time, "but it's not all that rare, either. What is rare, is for a tourist board to do it."
It's very funny.
Most people who know laugh about it, according to travel writer and photographer Robert W. Bone, author of the Maverick Guide to Hawaii.
"That goes back to, 'it doesn't matter what you say about me, just spell my name right,'" he said.
Use of a Hawaii photo in a Bermuda advertising campaign was "pretty awful," he said. "Somehow advertising people live in a different world."
He takes those involved to task for dismissing the fuss and saying it doesn't matter. "It's disgusting. It's intellectual honesty to me. Just because you can't tell (where the picture was taken) doesn't make it right."
Bone believes if the substitution had been caught ahead of time, the images would not have been used.
Some folks quoted in the Gazette have expressed dismay and embarrassment over the bad publicity.
Beyond the advertising issue, Bone doesn't think Hawaii and Bermuda beaches can be fairly compared.
"Bermuda has very nice beaches. It's a nice destination for people from the East Coast and Southern U.S. You can get there from Florida, but Florida has nice beaches too."
But Bone has seen beaches all over and chooses to live where? In Hawaii, thank you very much.
The Travel Channel and in Travel & Leisure and Conde Nast Traveler magazines, all seem to choose the islands, too. Annual lists of the "world's best" beaches show that Hawaii beaches kick sand all over Bermuda beaches.
Speaking from Duke's Canoe Club Waikiki, General Manager Ross Anderson said he was looking at "probably the most recognizable beach in the world, what more could you ask for?"
As for the assertions that Bermuda beaches are better, "I would probably say 'you've gotta be kidding.' Have you ever been to Bermuda? They've got no surf, they've got no Diamond Head. Plus, we've got beach boys and we've got aloha."
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com
