Regina citizen group calls for transparency and integrity following release of Experience Regina review

A citizen group released a report on the Experience Regina campaign, after setting out to find out what went wrong leading up to the launch.

The group, Regina Reimagined, revealed an in-depth report in response to the independent review done by consultant George B. Cuff, which was released on July 13, 2023.

Kristen McLeod, Jennie Avram, Janet Lee, and Jodi Woollam created Regina Reimagined after they were brought together by “a shared respect for the power of words and brands,” according to a statement from the organization.

They created a petition on June 13 calling for accountability from REAL, which garnered over 500 signatures.

Regina Reimagined’s report stated that Cuff’s review minimized the fallout of the campaign launch by simply referring to it as ‘the incident,’ which they wrote is “an insult to Regina citizens and a breach of their confidence.”

According to the citizen group’s report, Cuff “neglected to articulate” the cause of the public reaction to the branding campaign, which sexualized the City of Regina.

Their report showed that many people knew about the slogans before the official launch of the rebrand.

In March, Tourism Regina rebranded to Experience Regina and was met with immediate backlash after several slogans sexualized the city and played off the city’s name, mainly the fact that it rhymes with vagina.

Experience Regina was then branded back to Tourism Regina after the website was unavailable for a number of weeks.

According to the timeline in Cuff’s review, Reid was aware that the logos, colours, and manifesto “were complete and considered excellent, on March 9.

Later that same day, a [junior] REAL staff member greenlighted the release of the slogans to the Experience Regina website, without letting their supervisor know.

The impacts of the campaign caused reputational damage to the city and its residents, according to Regina Reimagined’s report, as well as compromised safety for women in Regina.

Both immediate and potential financial consequences were also highlighted in the group’s report, with several costs listed as unknown.

“Accountability and transparency must also include a full accounting of the cost to taxpayers for the fiasco,” the report read.

A cost of $90,000 for the George Cuff report, plus unknown travel expenses, and $30,000 for the rebrand work done by Brown Communications, were listed in the report.

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Costs associated with video production, production costs, the hiring of Brookline PR following the backlash, website work, independent contractor and consultant work, cost of launch merchandise, costs associated with the resignation of three senior employees, cost of the time spent by staff, damage to the tourism brand, and damage to local tourism attractions and business, were all listed as “unknown.”

The director of destination marketing for Tourism YQR resigned during the week of March 17, the community and event manager resigned in mid-May, and the director of Destination Experience resigned June 1, according to the timeline on the report.

According to the group, their report was made up of information compiled from Cuff’s report, the REAL media event, freedom of information files, and social media.

They hope their document will encourage the City of Regina and REAL to be transparent and operate with full integrity, which they say is critical for democracy.

- With files from Drew Postey and Allison Bamford