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- THE WEEK, Page 20BUSINESSGive Me Your Active, Your Affluent . . .
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- When businesses choose celebrities to endorse their products,
- they generally opt for world-class sports figures or gorgeous
- starlets. But a travel-industry ad campaign now airing on
- Japanese television may prove that graying world leaders of
- debatable sex appeal can sell with all the pizazz of a Vanna
- White. Developed by Go*USA, a tourism-industry trade group, the
- commercial features none other than President George Bush
- promoting the U.S. as a vacation paradise. Over images of
- rolling lawns and sandy beaches, Bush touts Hawaii, homegrown
- Dixieland jazz and, in an endearingly shameless display of
- personal preference, the wonders of Maine and Texas.
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- The same ad (minus the Japanese subtitles) appeared on
- British television earlier this year and was a resounding
- success. As a result, Go*USA decided to export the commercial
- to Japan. Last year, taking advantage of a weak dollar, 3.3
- million Japanese visitors flocked to the States, creating a near
- $10 billion U.S. trade surplus in travel and tourism with Japan
- alone. The travel business and the Commerce Department hope the
- Bush ad will lure even greater numbers of big spenders to
- American shores in 1992.
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