The campaign were timed for London's Gay Pride Week, which ended Saturday. The posters touted the attractions of the state to gay tourists, including its "gay beaches" and its Civil War-era plantations.

Msnbc writes:

Similar ads were posted for Atlanta, Boston, Las Vegas, New Orleans and Washington, D.C., none of which reported any negative backlash. But in South Carolina, reaction to the posters — dubbed "the gayest ever mainstream media advertising campaign in London" by Out Now, the Australian advertising firm that designed the promotion — was swift.

After The Palmetto Scoop, a South Carolina political blog, uncovered the promotion last week, Republican state Sen. David Thomas of Greenville protested the campaign and called for an audit of the $13 million advertising budget overseen buy the state Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism.

"South Carolinians will be irate when they learn their hard earned tax dollars are being spent to advertise our state as 'so gay,'" Thomas said in a statement.

State tourism officials insisted that they had known nothing about the campaign. But when the promotion was first announced last month, the tourism board said in a statement that "it sends a powerful positive message."

"For our gay visitors, it is actually quite wonderful for them to discover just how much South Carolina has to offer — from stunning plantation homes to miles of wide sandy beaches," the statement said.

Gay tourism is a $64.5 billion market in the United States, the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association estimates, and more than 75 cities around the world have gay-themed campaigns that create no controversy.

Last update: 01-29-2009 20:40