Winnipeg’s tourism office posts hilarious home video
City promotes itself with clip of brothers upset they are going to Disney, not the Peg
Tourism Winnipeg is promoting the city as a place more magical than Disney World, using a family home video of a surprise trip reveal gone sideways.
The 40-second clip from 2013 stars Jonathan and Ethan Byers, from Calgary, who were 8 and 6 years old at the time. Their parents, Ian and Chantalle, had previously told the boys that they were travelling to Winnipeg for a vacation.
“They were pretty excited about the idea because they have cousins in Winnipeg they are really close to,” Ian Byers told Metro.
However, his sons proceeded to have a minor meltdown when their parents admitted they were actually leaving that morning to hang out with Mickey Mouse.
“You said we were going to Winnipeg,” yells the older sibling.
“You’re such a liar,” he screams as he storms off to his bedroom.
Ian Byers said he was visiting family in Winnipeg earlier this year and they encouraged him to resurrect the hilarious video and send it to Tourism Winnipeg.
“We loved the idea of using this awesome footage,” said Matt Schaubroeck, spokesperson for Economic Development Winnipeg, who said the ad has been viewed more than 177,000 times on Facebook since it was posted last Friday.
“It’s such a purely organic video and you just can’t help but laugh at these boys as they groggily process that they are going to the Magic Kingdom and not to see their relatives in Winnipeg,” Schaubroeck said.
Tourism Winnipeg took the ad a step further on Facebook on Monday, targeting Calgary, Regina, Saskatoon, Grand Forks and Fargo.
The stars of the video, who are now 12 and 10, eventually did board the plane and, according to their dad, had a “magical” time.
“They are pretty pumped about the video being used in the ad,” laughed Ian Byers.
“Jonathan, who is quite tech savvy, said it’s neat to be such an internet sensation.”