PHOTO: A Feb. 16 screengrab from the Ithaca and Tompkins County Convention and Visitors Bureau website, VisitIthaca.com, shows that despite the cold, Ithaca's sense of humor is still intact.
As upstate New York and the rest of the Northeast waves goodbye to Winter Storm Neptune and braces itself for the wrath of Winter Storm Octavia, the Ithaca and Tompkins County Convention and Visitors Bureau encourages travelers to get away to the Florida Keys.
That's right. In a truly bizzare advertisement, visitors of VisitIthaca.com will now see a pop-up banner on the site that reads "That's it. We surrender. Winter, you win. Key West anyone?"
Bureau director Bruce Stoff explained the thinking behind the decision, via CNN.com's Stephanie Gallman: "It was 5 degrees below zero this morning when I woke up. Everyone in the Northeast is beaten by winter now, and we're dreaming of being some place that is warm."
"The wackiest thing I've ever seen in my life from a tourism marketing standpoint," is how one Florida Keys tourism council member described the ad.
But to be clear, this isn't an advertising campaign, as no money was exchanged, according to Gallman.
The bottom line is that so far this has been a winter like few others for residents and travelers in the Northeast. A slew of winter storms have not only led to thousands of flight cancellations and threatened critical infrastructure, but have brought frigid temperatures to the region, with dangerous wind chills compounding several feet of snowfall.
Andy Newman, who granted Stoff permission to use photos from the Florida Keys homepage last week, said that he "didn't believe he'd actually go through with it."
Nonetheless, Newman understands the dismal conditions that ultimately inspired Stoff's creative nod to the Keys. "It's in the 70s, there's no snow and no frost on the ground" said Newman. "Come on down. Why wouldn't you?"
It's safe to say that Ithaca can wait for now.
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