Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism Ads

The recent commercials produced for Newfoundland and Labrador tourism absolutely blow me away. In particular the new ones for 2009. These are visually stunning masterpieces. They portray the rough, craggy landscapes of Newfoundland's shores in this eerie, magical way. 

One of my favourites is definitely the new one for L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site, located on the northernmost tip o' the island. It's the site of a short-lived Viking settlement about 1000 years ago, similar to the one you may have heard of in Greenland. They've reconstructed the buildings discovered there by archaeologists, and filled them with costumed interpreters. My archaeology lab class recently had one of the blacksmiths who work at L'Anse aux Meadows come and give a talk on metalurgy.

This commerical does a great job of evoking a sense of history, adventure, excitement, and all those other good things. It shows a pack of kids, dressed in "newfie"-looking sweaters and such, exploring the abandoned Viking site. I'll just warn anyone who thinks that place is always so deserted that it is likely not so. 

heres the link to the commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1Kgg0n_rck

You should definitely check it out.

The historic site itself is a place of pride and identity for locals. Here's an example of a community brought together, and benefiting from the archaeological heritage of their region. We need more like this. Ontario has a few places like this as well, such as Black Creek Pioneer Village, Lang Village, Crawford Lake Iroquoian village, and Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, to name a few.

The downside of this commercial, of course, is that it doesnt do much for the non-European archaeological heritage of the province. But this is a poorly-known period in Canadian history, so it does deserve an ad campaign of its own.