For many foreigners the image of Russia is still associated with the snow, vodka, balalaikas and bears. The idea of this advertising campaign - is to illustrate the absurdity of this stereotype and to show that St. Petersburg is the most beautiful European city with a great number of unique monuments of architecture and art.
The TV commercials became the continuation of the "No bears, just beauties" concept, implemented last year in the outdoor advertising. The models were placed in Paris, London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Prague. The shooting was held in Hermitage and Kazan Cathedral, and the bears were shot separately, in a studio pavilion. The fact that the "walks" of the animals around the halls of Hermitage and the roof of Kazan Cathedral look real - is the big merit of the bears themselves - untrained animals were absolutely natural and harmonically fitted the shot.
The clips are meant for showing on the events and presentations held by the Tourist Board, wide release on the television channels which are most popular among the foreign public. Thus, it is planned to show them on CNN and Euronews channels.
Russia is not an exception among those countries that are investing currently huge marketing budgets into the promotion of the tourism to their cities. Though, Russia occupies the 10-th place in the rating of the 12 most dangerous countries for tourists, the travelers from the whole world are visiting this amazing country and most of them are returning visitors.
