It’s a tough thing being an
official tourism promoter in a town that, for several months each year, bursts
at the seams with outsiders.
While one measure of success is attracting a tsunami of visitors to make cash registers sing, that same invasion can mean the loss of community solace, traffic gridlock and other impacts that cause locals to dive for cover.
I’m talking here not only about
local people but also local wildlife with whom we share the woods.
No matter what one does, in fulfilling
one’s duty which is telling the world that the place you are pitching is an
astounding one to be, a tourism promotor can’t fully win.
By now, you may have heard
about the Jackson Hole Travel and Tourism Board’s new advertising campaign. It’s
called “Stay Wild” and, as a creative execution by Minneapolis-based Colle McVoy,
it’s brilliant.
In some ways, it’s also controversial.
In other ways, “Stay Wild” is a bold gamble that, if it works, could
paradoxically appease the growing number of local people worried about the
future of wildness in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
“Stay Wild” is reminiscent of
Apple’s famous “1984” spot for its Macintosh computer that aired during the Super
Bowl. It touted the virtue of tearing down the barriers of old thinking.
The 90-second “Stay Wild” spot
features words lifted from Charlie Chaplin’s monologue in “The Great Dictator”. It proclaims the uplifting wholesomeness of escaping into wild nature and
finding the freedom to do basically whatever one wants, shedding the limiting
shackles of urban existence.
The ad flashes a heart-pumping
gamut of outdoor recreation pursuits, intermixed with images of wildlife,
including grizzlies, intended to symbolize how wild our region is.
Still images taken from Jackson Hole Travel & Tourism Board's YouTube video "Jackson Hole Winter 2017-18 : Stay Wild". View full video below
Peter Aengst, northern Rockies
director of The Wilderness Society, is among many who were left nonplused.
Inherent in the message of “Stay Wild”, he says, is lack of reflection. The
piece promotes the pursuit of wild human
behavior, with wildness of place treated only as window dressing.
It’s a complaint that’s also
been leveled at many outdoor gear manufacturers and retailers.
“I’m concerned with
how our culture increasingly equates the wild as only about human needs and
adventure. Wildness is just as much about having the humility to restrain
ourselves including prioritizing other species needs over our own desires,” Aengst said.
Wildlife—the very basis of Greater Yellowstone’s uniqueness and foundation
of its nature-tourism economy—has limits of tolerance, thresholds for the
amount of disruption species can handle from humans.
“Whether the Muries, the Craigheads, or many others, Jackson
Hole has played a nationally significant role over many decades with wilderness
thought and action,” Aengst noted. “So, while I’m not in the marketing business,
I’d like to think that the town would want to encourage visitors to come and ‘stay
wild’ in more than just an adrenalin thrills context.”
I had an excellent conversation about all of this with Kate Sollitt, who serves as
executive director of the tourism board. The goal of “Stay Wild” is to differentiate
Jackson Hole from Aspen and Vail by emphasizing its wild grittier edge.
Sollitt and colleagues are well aware of the low
rumble building out there, growing steadily toward a roar, with people complaining that Greater Yellowstone doesn’t need a greater volume of visitors; it needs to have
more conscientious souls, drawn to wildness, who become more aware of the ecosystem’s
specialness and fragility.
Sollitt doesn’t disagree. “Stay
Wild”, she says, is merely the start of a campaign that the tourism board hopes
will result in connecting visitors to conservation groups working to protect
Greater Yellowstone.
The Jackson Hole Travel and
Tourism Board already knows that summer tourism needs no more promotion. That’s
why it has focused its marketing spends on bolstering the shoulder seasons of
fall and spring.
In fact, the outdoor recreation
confab known as SHIFT was originally hatched by the tourism board to bring more
people here in autumn. Today, SHIFT bills itself as a springboard for social
discussions on the intersection of outdoor recreation and conservation.
More and more people, however,
are questioning whether SHIFT organizers understand how industrial strength
recreation and more people inundating the frontcountry and backountry are
affecting Greater Yellowstone’s wildlife and the character of its wild
landscapes.
“Stay Wild” is certain to
attract more people to Greater Yellowstone. It may also accomplish something else equally
as important, fueling a better conversation about the value of real wildness.
If “Stay Wild” really does
result in visitors becoming more committed to protecting Greater Yellowstone, it
could be game-changing, because at the moment most tourism marketers in the
region treat conservation of wild country only as an afterthought.
Jackson Hole Travel & Tourism Board's YouTube video "Jackson Hole Winter 2017-18 : Stay Wild"
About Todd Wilkinson
Todd Wilkinson, founder of Mountain Journal, is author of the book Ripple Effects: How to Save Yellowstone and American's Most Iconic Wildlife Ecosystem. Wilkinson has been writing about Greater Yellowstone for 35 years and is a correspondent to publications ranging from National Geographic to The Guardian. He is author of several books on topics as diverse as scientific whistleblowers and Ted Turner, and a book about the harrowing story of Jackson Hole grizzly mother 399, the most famous bear in the world which features photographs by Thomas Mangelsen. For more information on Wilkinson, click here. (Photo by David J Swift).
