Newfoundland and Labrador have a unique new tourism campaign. In it, a baby goat rides on a white horse as music plays in the background, according to ABC. To make it even more unique, if that's actually possible, the event was not staged for the purpose of a campaign, but actually happened.
The unusual occurrence was in a rural province with a population of just over 500,000 people.
"While the film crew was on their way to film in the St. Mary's area, they spotted the goat on the horse on the side of the road," the Honorable Terry French, Newfoundland's Minister for Tourism, Culture and Recreation, told ABC. "They stopped and said, 'did anybody see this?
"'We have to stop and get this,'" he said. "If this doesn't play into us being a unique place, we've got to get this."
Prior to this footage, which was filmed by the crew in 2011, the area located at the eastern edge of North America was known as the place where the sun rises first.
When the campaign was first pitched to French for the province's ongoing "Find Yourself" ad campaign promoting tourism, French said no.
"I thought it was fun to watch but said, 'Oh, I'm not so sure,'" he said.
He changed his mind this month when his social media team noticed that goats were trending online. The team presented the goat video again.
"Goats are trending online," French recalls them telling him. "Why don't we use the footage we have?" The second time around, French agreed.
"We all sat around a board room table for a while and laughed, and said, 'Let's do it,'" French said. "So we did."
The video, which is 35-seconds long, was posted on YouTube on Tuesday and has already amassed 100,000 views. It has the title, "Goat on a Horse, Newfoundland and Labrador," and opens with the question, "What else would you expect from a place with its very own time zone?"
"We know that we're not Disney World and we don't try to be," French said of the campaign and strategy to attract tourists.
The "Find Yourself" ad campaign has produced 16 television ads since it began in 2007, and has won more than 180 international and national awards for excellence. It is likely, however, that the goat on a horse will be the campaign the province is always best known for.
"It is what it is," French said. "You get people watching it online.
"People get a real good look at us and then say, 'Maybe this is a place we should visit someday," French continued. "We tell everyone it's a place that should be on everyone's bucket list."
Newfoundland's new ad campaign, featuring a goat on a horse.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
