San Francisco’s had an outpouring of bad press lately — from major retailers like Nordstrom and Whole Foods closing businesses to the high-profile murder of Cash App founder Bob Lee in early April.
Now the city is embarking on an “expensive” ad campaign to boost tourism and surpass the number of visitors expected this year, NBC Bay Area reported. The $6 million dollar campaign includes the first-ever TV commercial for San Francisco, which was the first issued on Tuesday.
“Welcome to the most beautiful city in the world, where it’s never the same, but always San Francisco,” the video begins, then shows off some of the city’s iconic landmarks and views, such as the Golden Gate Bridge and Union Square.
However, within the first 22 hours of publication, the ad was already heavily criticized online.
“SF is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, but this ad completely lacks its charm,” one user commented on the video. Others noted that the ad’s cheerful nature ignores some of San Francisco’s core problems, such as open-air drug use and homelessness.
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“Now show me the homeless zombies and broken car windows,” reads one comment. “Lol how about not spending [money] on a commercial and have your cops arrest all those car thieves, clean up the homeless, arrest fentanyl dealers,” another user wrote.
On Tuesday, San Francisco Mayor London Breed proposed a $692 million budget to help the city’s homeless, NBC Bay Area reported. The budget would go towards hundreds of additional shelter beds, affordable housing and resources for people at risk of homelessness. The budget proposal will be sent to the Supervisory Board in June.
