Come up for air.

      Running about a half dozen years, Asheville :: It will lift your spirit was the first fully choreographed campaign after a room tax established the funding source for marketing the city to a traveling public.

In television commercials writer George Plimpton spoke of a creative environment that attracted George Vanderbilt, George Gershwin, Henry Ford and Thomas Edison and inexorably continues to inspire. Print ads, shown here, worked against a profoundly simple creative strategy that positioned Asheville as a city of sophisticated charm within a fly-cast of deep and rapturous nature.

The visitor upsurge this work triggered set off a jazzy up-building of accommodations of all kinds, from brocaded bed and breakfasts to Victorian inns to glassy hotels. More importantly, the campaign brought to our city travelers who felt at home here.

I believe we are still sharing and reveling in the general acknowledgment of what this place is about as expressed in this early, and beautiful, work.  The campaign, in addition to helping spark the renaissance of Asheville, appeared in Communication Arts Magazine and achieved recognition for marketing effectiveness as an international EFFIE winner.

Agency: Price/McNabb. Design: Chris Schlegel. CD/Writer: Jay Fields