You are Welcome to Wales: An interesting start to Wales tourism week

Posted by: Dr John Jewell

Wales tourism week has got off to an interesting start. Yesterday we had the unveiling of the new ‘visit Wales’ advertising campaign created by the Golley Slater agency in Cardiff and funded to the tune of £4million by European Regional Development Fund. Minister for the Economy, Edwina Hart, said, ‘We’re lucky in Wales to have such a huge range of activities, experiences and products to enjoy and share with our visitors.’

A point which is no doubt obvious to the ‘stars’ of MTV’s the Valleys who, according to Wales Online have merged the traditional ‘Welcome to Wales’ road signs with the iconic Wonderbra adverts of the 1990s to mark the start of  controversial show’s new series tonight . Drivers on the A465 and various other entry points into the country  will over the next week or so see Natalee Harris, Lateysha Grace and Jenna Jonathan clad in, as the tabloids might say, ‘revealing’ swimwear bearing the sign ‘Hello Boyos’. Welcome to Wales: Home of the Valleywood Nights.

MTV UK’s Jo Bacon told Wales Online’s Steffan Rhys  : ‘We wanted to extend a warm Welsh welcome to everyone entering the country and put an entertaining spin on the boring traditional signs that clog up our roads.’

Well, Wales, are you not entertained?

UPDATE (25/02/2014): Evidently, some people were not entertained. The billboards (barely) lasted 24hrs. According to Wales Online the sign has since been taken down after ‘grumbles from disgruntled drivers’ and concerns raised by the road safety charity, Brake – which said that the imagery could cause an ‘unnecessary distraction’. Oh well. Job done, though. No  such thing as bad publicity for a show which thrives on it.