Billboard ad leaves bad taste in Thomson’s mouth
InfoDine display meant to reassure eatery patrons
Wayne Thomson has a beef with a billboard ad he calls “out of line and disgusting.”
The roadside advertisement, on Lundy’s Lane near Garner Road in Niagara Falls, promotes Niagara Region’s restaurant inspection service called Info Dine, which provides online results from health inspectors’ visits to the venues.
The Niagara Falls city councillor complained this week the ad — it shows two people recoiling in apparent disgust, beside the words “Never Fear, Info Dine is Here” — sends a bad message to the millions of hungry tourists who visit Niagara every year.
“It’s not going to have a positive effect on what’s happening in Niagara Falls,” he told city council Tuesday.
Businesspeople “are spending millions of dollars to support our destination” and the image of terrified restaurant diners hurts that, said Thomson, himself a former regional health inspector.
Similar billboard ads are posted in St. Catharines and Welland.
Anthony Habjan said they were never intended to scare people away from eating out in Niagara.
Rather, they’re intended as a reminder that restaurants are inspected regularly for health and safety and the results are available online.
“Our message is, have no fear,” said Habjan, a public health inspection manager for environmental health for Niagara Region.
“And when they do go on the website, they can make informed decisions about what they’re doing. That was the main message. Don’t worry — come back, feel safe and all this information is here.”
He acknowledged there has been “chatter” in the business community that echoes Thomson’s concerns. The ad — created in-house at the Region — was due to come down next week anyway, and when it returns the design will be changed.
The Info Dine website contains results from inspections on the 2,700 to 3,000 restaurants in Niagara. The Region actually offers data from inspections in seven different areas, including beach water quality, tattoo shops and manicure/pedicure stores.
The link is: NiagaraRegion.ca/ health/inspect.
Habjan said the beach website, for example, gets 60,000 to 90,000 online hits over the five-month summer period.
“The (billboard) image was more about being eye-catching and trying to get people’s attention,” he said. “But the message is clear: have no fear, everyone. The inspections are here, take a look.”