MAYOR GIULIANI AND QUEENS BP SHULMAN UNITE WITH LOCAL BUSINESS LEADERS AGAINST CONTINENTAL'S NEGATIVE AD CAMPAIGN
Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani was joined by Queens Borough President Claire Shulman and local business and community leaders today to criticize the recent negative ad campaign launched by Continental Airlines which portrays the City in an unfair manner. The Mayor and City leaders urged the airline to pull the ads immediately. The ads are currently scheduled to run through the end of 1997.
Continental Airlines' new ad campaign is designed to draw New Yorkers to Continental's hub at Newark International Airport and away from JFK and LaGuardia Airports.
"Continental Airlines' decision to run these ads that depict New York City in an unflattering light is wrong," Mayor Giuliani said. "The ads are largely negative and are disparaging of the City of New York. I urge Continental Airlines to pull these ads immediately."
Mayor Giuliani said the ads are inappropriate and unfair to New Yorkers. "New York City is cleaner and safer than ever before. We live in a beautiful City, and these ads only foster a false stereotype of New York. New York City is also the finest tourist attraction and the safest large City in the country. Continental made a mistake when it thought that by attacking New York it would win business from New Yorkers."
"The Continental Airlines ads are anti-New York City, mean spirited and not funny," said Queens Borough President Claire Shulman. "Continental Airlines would do far better to acknowledge the positive role that its hundreds of employees in New York City play in boosting the local economy and helping to keep area airports competitive. New York City-bashing is a short-sighted, ill-advised strategy for getting people to cross the Hudson."
Mayor Giuliani added, "If the Port Authority were as devoted to New York's interests as it is to New Jersey's, it never would have allowed Continental to launch this negative campaign. While they claim to agree with us on this issue, their criticisms and opposition are not specific. So I urge the Port Authority to stand with us in our demand that Continental take these ads off the air and out of print."
The Mayor was also joined today by: Howard Rubenstein, President of Rubenstein Associates; Stephen Morello, President of the New York Convention and Visitors' Bureau; Lewis Rudin, President of the Association for a Better New York; Joe Spinnato, President of the New York Hotel Association; Joseph Farber, Treasurer, and Eric Robinson, Director of Marketing and Public Relations, of the Queens Chamber of Commerce; Rudy Auslander, Chairman of the JFK Chamber of Commerce; Bill Puckhaber, Publisher of the Airport Express; and Horace Webb, Chairman, and Carolyn Stone, Associate Director, of the Big Apple Greeter Association.
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