Some British papers reject Las Vegas ads

Monday, May 1, 2000 | 11:25 a.m.

Movie connection

The model who portrays Queen Elizabeth II in R&R Partners' new Las Vegas ad campaign has done it before.

Jeannette Charles, who portrayed the queen in "The Naked Gun," a 1988 police spoof starring Leslie Nielsen, was flown to Las Vegas for a photo shoot for the ad campaign, a creative effort that cost $40,000 to develop.

"The creative team really got a kick out of working with her," R&R senior account supervisor Julie Wolf said. "People were stopping her in the casino and in restaurants because they thought she was the queen. She's a dead ringer for her."

Although it's made the rounds on television reruns, the film is now on Wolf's must-see list.

"I remember her in the movie, but now I'm going to have to rent it and see it again after working with her," she said.

It's a sure-fire attention-grabber in the land of bobbies on bicycles, Big Ben and kidney pie.

Poke a little fun at the royal family and before you can say London Bridge, you've created a sticky wicket.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority's new advertising campaign touting Virgin Atlantic Airline's nonstop air service between London and Las Vegas has hit the mark across the Atlantic, generating controversy in its effort to get the Brits to take notice of the upcoming flights.

Virgin Atlantic's twice-a-week service between London's Gatwick International Airport and McCarran International Airport begins June 8. Virgin Atlantic already has made a splash about the service in Las Vegas with a series of full-page color newspaper ads.

The ad campaign, which broke March 29 in Britain, features a woman resembling Queen Elizabeth II surrounded by a trio of showgirls. The tagline: "This may well be the most ambitious cultural exchange program of all time."

In another ad, the faux queen is throwing dice at a craps table under the tagline, "The action in Las Vegas is nonstop. Now, so are the flights."

A third has Her Royal Highness playing blackjack and says: "Now, Tom Jones won't be the only Brit playing Las Vegas."

A disclaimer says the ads are not intended to represent an endorsement of Las Vegas by the queen. But even with the disclaimer, the Sunday Times, the Sunday Telegraph and the News of the World of London refused to run the ads.

The Guardian, the Mail on Sunday and the London Evening Standard ran the ads with the disclaimer.

The campaign was the brainchild of R&R Partners' senior account supervisor Julie Wolf, creative director Ron Lopez and art director Peter Wood. R&R, a Las Vegas company, is the LVCVA's ad agency.

The royal fuss the $250,000 ad campaign has created is good news to Wolf, who said she knew the all-print placement was on the edge by British standards.

"We knew that it would raise some eyebrows," Wolf said. "You can't make a clearer visual connection of bringing London to Las Vegas than placing the queen in very Las Vegas-style settings."

Wolf said some of the publications were uncomfortable about running the ads because a 100-page document of British advertising codes has guidelines about advertising gambling as well as using likenesses of the royal family.

"We knew we were walking a fine line with the queen," Wolf said. "As it turned out, it wasn't the gambling that was a problem and it wasn't the picture of the queen that was a problem, but it was a picture of the queen gambling that was."

One of the publications that didn't use the ads, News of the World, even sent a copy to Lord Chamberlain, a protocol officer for the queen. Wolf said she hasn't heard whether he has given a thumbs-up to the ad.

The LVCVA said it hasn't received any negative feedback at its London office, which has its phone number on the ads.

An LVCVA official said the campaign seems to have accomplished what the agency set out to do.

"It was definitely a success," said Richelle Thomson, a spokeswoman for the agency. "The controversy was fairly limited, but it drew some good press on the ads themselves, which accomplished our purpose of informing people about the new Virgin Atlantic flights."

The LVCVA plans to keep the image of the queen as part of future advertising campaigns, keeping in mind the sensitivity the British have for the royal family.

Wolf said Virgin Atlantic, which has run some of its own on-the-edge promotional campaigns in its history, but treats the royals with respect, said it has received a handful of complaints about the Las Vegas campaign at its office.

"That means it's getting noticed, and that's good for us," said Wolf, who added that R&R has hired a company to track editorial response on the campaign.