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Ad encourages ‘yob’ tourists
ITS windswept beauty and rugged landscapes attract tens of thousands of visitors every year.
But a new beer advert that also extols staycations in the Highlands and Outer Hebrides this year has been slammed by locals for encouraging loutish behaviour.
Beer brand Corona’s latest promotional video shows a group of young people driving a x on a beach before drinking around a campfire in a rural area where locals say they have been besieged by tourists.
The Mexican Pilsner, owned by beer giant AB InBev, has released two new ads encouraging UK residents to visit the Outer Hebrides. But unhappy locals say Corona has chosen beauty spots that have already been beset by an influx of wild campers pitching up in back gardens, and leaving a trail of trash, faeces and illegal barbecues in their wake.
The advert follows a group of friends from London on a 1,000-mile trip to visit a friend and ‘discover the littleknown paradise’.
The short film shows the actors tearing up sand by driving a Land Rover Defender on a pristine white stretch of beach, before clinking beers over a fire on the shore.
One local councillor fears the advert will inspire more visitors to travel to the Highlands and surrounding areas, leading to more dumped tents, wild fires and littering. SNP Highlands councillor Ron MacWilliam said: ‘This beer promo is absolutely the kind of selfish marketing that is fuelling widespread chaos and vandalism in Highland communities and beauty spots.’
Liz Smith, Scottish Conservative environment spokesperson, added: ‘We want to encourage people to come and explore many of our iconic beauty spots across Scotland and any promotion of that is to ordinarily be welcomed.
‘However, those who are doing so must do so in a responsible manner, which in many cases this summer has not been the case with many disgraceful acts of wild and dirty camping. The fact that a well-known brand would be appearing to encourage this sends out completely the wrong message.’
Meanwhile, police were forced to break up beach parties amid fears students could be breaching social distancing rules in St Andrews.
Locals said people were packed on to all three beaches in the Fife town on Monday night. Conservative councillor Dominic Nolan said: ‘These nuisance parties are unacceptable.’
‘Completely the wrong message’