Outrageous: (30) sec Ad cost 270K-Airtime not included!

http://www.pnj.com/article/20130609/NEWS01/306090024/Chamber-board-to-meet-this-week-about-costly-promotion

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How much does it cost to promote Pensacola?

Try $270,857 for 30 seconds.

That’s how much a Tennessee advertising firm charged the Greater Pensacola Chamber to produce a 30-second TV ad that is currently airing in several cities across the Southeast United States and is set to run in Washington, D.C., in the fall.

The actual cost to produce the ad was $258,094. But a $12,763 charge for a rain delay when the weather turned bad pushed the amount up.

The six-figure price tag, which does not include the cost of buying air time and is to be financed with local bed tax money, has caused a firestorm among several chamber board members.

“The price is scary,” chamber Chairman Sandy Sansing said. “Is it a justifiable cost or not? I don’t have enough information to make that call.”

One 30 second commercial cost more than the projected deficit on Maritime Park......hmmmmmmmmmm.

Something's fishy here...why would the Chamber hire an out-of-state ad agency?  There are plenty of people in Pensacola itself that are more than capable of producing a tourism ad.

Why not include a few seconds of the aviation museum and Blue Angels, lighthouse, beach businesses, Joe Patti's, McQuire's, Cordova Mall, different hospitals, 5 Flags Speedway showing the start of a Snowball Derby or one of the other super late model races..  Maybe including the different places in the ad to share in the cost in proportion with the time they are included would cut the cost to the taxpayers and switch it to the businesses that will profit from it....
If they don't pay for part of the ad, they shouldn't be included in it..  Of course, the Navy would have to approve paying for the advertising of anything on the base.. 
Maybe the UWF advertising students could do the entire thing with any money made from it going to the university for scholorships.. 

Why not open a competition and show the ads on LOCAL TV with the viewers voting and choosing the winner..