No, This Is Not The Northern Territory Government’s Official Tourism Campaign
C U in the NT, you guys!
If you’re like me, sometimes you will suspend your disbelief just so you can enjoy a very far fetched non-reality for just a moment. I suspect that for many people, this was the case when they first spotted what looked like an official Northern Territory tourism campaign — named ‘CU in the NT’.
The Facebook page, which popped up on Saturday, was created by a group called ‘NT Official’ who use almost identical branding to the Visit Northern Territory website. An Instagram account appeared yesterday. People were convinced! And many were shocked to their very core.
How long before the Advertising Standards Bureau is inundated with complaints on the NT's new campaign? CUintheNT | https://t.co/H6bEapYh9d
— Matt Beard (@matthewtbeard) November 7, 2016
The reaction on NT Official’s Facebook page was explosive. Some people, thinking that this was an official government ad campaign, thought it was “genius”, others found it “disgusting” and extremely disrespectful given one of the images shows the provocative slogan over the sacred site of Uluru.
The campaign is real in the sense that it exists and has available merchandise, but it is not affiliated with the Northern Territory government in any way. Tourism NT told Mumbrella: “Tourism NT has no connection and is no way affiliated with the website or Facebook page of NTOfficial.com or any of their promotions.”
Despite using the design and typography of Tourism NT, NT Official are just a “guerrilla group of people with the aim of promoting travel awareness to the Northern Territory region” and presumably, to sell t-shirts and stickers.