With summer just around the corner, the city of San Francisco is spending millions of dollars on a tourism campaign, and some locals' reactions aren't exactly favorable.
Some say the ad produced by San Francisco Travel misses the city's charm while others say it's a veil over the city's filthy streets, open-air drug use and daily crime problem.
It's the city's first TV commercial and will air through October in cities such as New York, Chicago, Washington, Boston and Houston.
“They tested really positively and these are some of the positive images of San Francisco,” said Lynn Bruni-Perkins of the San Francisco Travel Association. “I know there has been a lot of challenges for the city right now but there are also a lot of really wonderful things about our city that we wanted to showcase with this campaign.”
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The ad features the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, and Lombard Street.
But the city's recovery from the pandemic has been uneven with businesses slow to return and a troubling number of headlines about retail closures, drug related issues and a rise in violence and property crimes.
“We really wanted to challenge the skewed narrative. I do think there are a lot of positive experiences. We know that 92% who visited San Francisco said they wanted to return to San Francisco,” said Bruni-Perkins.
The tourists at Fisherman’s Wharf, say the ad works for them.
“I think it captured a pretty nice vibe. I noticed the weather seemed really nice in all that footage when in reality we know it can get pretty cold here even in the middle of the summer,” said Mike Cassady of Reno.
Tourism is the city's most critical industry -- a major revenue source.
“Our statistical reality is overall crime is down year to date, we’re five months into the year, property crime is down we have about a 7% decrease. Violent crime is up a little bit year to date but our violent crime, when we are compared to other major cities, is always on the lower end of that spectrum,” said San Francisco police Chief Bill Scott.
