Living a double life

J. Craig Anderson

Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2006 | 12:34 p.m.

Las Vegas nightclubs and casinos will be inundated with card-carrying astronauts, neurosurgeons and bounty hunters in the coming months, thanks to a new turn in tourism marketing.

The city that encourages tourists to deceive their parents, children and spouses with the "What happens here ..." slogan has taken another step down that road with a national advertising blitz inviting visitors to create a false identity - then come to Las Vegas and live it.

The new "Be Anyone" campaign features magazine and TV ads, including one called "Jobs," in which a man tells colorful fibs about what he does for a living to "impress the ladies," according to an announcement by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority's ad agency, R&R Partners Inc.

The campaign includes an Internet-based contest, at www.visitlasvegas.com, in which participants who concoct the most creative fictional personae can win an all-expenses-paid Las Vegas vacation to carry out the hoax in style.

Randy Snow, R&R Partners vice president and executive creative director, said the campaign is meant to poke fun at visitors who use a little "strategic embellishment" to spice up their vacation.

National magazine advertisements will get the Blarney stone rolling with scratch-off cells that allow players to mix and match names, occupations and cities of origin. Examples provided by the tourism authority include "Norm, double agent from Fiji," and "Cindy, rap mogul from Havana."

Contestants will be aided and abetted by "printable business cards, a real Web site and 800 number for their faux business, plus printable certificates of achievement in their field, suitable for framing," the ad agency says.

Snow said there were some concerns during the creative process that the promotional items could be used to perpetrate actual fraud, so the agency made sure to stick with outlandish job descriptions such as "hand model" and "cage fighter."

"We're not giving away medical school diplomas to put on the wall," he said.

Snow did not speculate as to how far his agency could take its trickery-touting campaign in the future, but here are a couple of (apocryphal) suggestions:

"Be Single" - Does the old ball-and-chain cramp your style when you visit Sin City? Fill out an online form explaining why your husband or wife is dragging you down, and the visitor's authority might assist you by having two ex-convicts "host" your significant other in the trunk of their sedan for the duration of your stay.

"Be John Malkovich" - Thanks to face transplant technology pioneered recently in France, see what it's like to cavort in Vegas as actor John Malkovich. Also available: Nicolas Cage and John Travolta.

J. Craig Anderson can be reached at 259-2320 or at craig@lasvegassun.com.