Study up television shows and advertisers!

December 4th, 2007

Filed Under Hawaii TV |

I don’t know if any of you have seen the new Helio Up Flickr commercial featuring Hawaii but I know when I did, I was HIGHLY irked! Now I get that if you haven’t been to Hawaii that there are all kinds of misinformation floating around by people who would rather assume things. Like Honolulu is the name of the island where Waikiki is (you don’t know how many times I’ve heard that) or that you can take a 20 minute boat ride between all of the islands and all kinds of other assumptions that have people in the know shaking their heads. To me the worst offenders of perpetuating these myths are advertisers or television shows who find it easier to slap together a bunch of footage from various islands and call it Hawaii. Yes, it encompasses the STATE of Hawaii but when you’ve got Samantha Brown driving on Oahu and then have a shot of Ali’i Drive in Kona on the Big Island as filler as though “you too can find the *Kona Gallery* on Oahu,” then I get a little frustrated. (And Girl Meets Hawaii which has long since stopped taping there was one of the more accurate shows–the Travel Channel has thrown up some pretty pathetic and inaccurate “facts” about the islands onto our screens over the years.)

Now I see the new commercial for the Helio Up Flickr and I have to roll my eyes and mutter under my breath every time. If you want to see the commercial click here. On the right side under Services TV Spots, it’s the 3rd one down for Helio-Up Flickr. Go ahead and watch it real quick, I’ll wait.

Did you spot it? I thought so! If not, pay attention, I’m about to school you! LOL! Starts off with a beautiful shot of the Kalalau Valley on Kauai. Then they proceed to make up a name for Kalalau Valley which I believe was “Mount Wilia’nunun” and as he types in what to name the picture he types “Mt. Pu’u Ohulehule.” Then the guy tells him to look it up and it says “name your location” and he enters Oahu and when it maps it for him, it shows it on the Big Island around the Kamuela area. Really? I mean REALLY? It would’ve taken you what, 10 minutes to research that and actually put the *right* info in the commercial. Instead you have 3 islands that have all been misrepresented and believe me when I tell you that there are people out there that see that that are going to be looking for Mt. Pu’u Ohulehule on Oahu that looks oddly enough like the Big Island.

Advertisers…TV shows…anyone in the mainstream media…I beg of you, get it right or use somewhere else as your exotic locale! It only perpetuates the myriad of stereotypes mainlanders or people who haven’t visited the island have about Hawaii. People could get a nice little education in that 30 seconds instead of being mislead and it would’ve cost you what, 30 minutes MAX in someone doing and double checking the research. Hele on Helio, hele on.

*Stepping off soapbox*