Make Someone Smile
June 30, 2010 | Uncategorized
It could have been called the “Sensodyne Smirk.” Or the “Crest Challenge.” Maybe the “Colgate Championship.”
Instead, though, the Orlando Convention & Visitors Bureau labeled it “Orlando Makes Me Smile.” That’s their worldwide marketing campaign to find 67 people with the best reasons why Orlando makes them smile. And if you want to enter, anything is fair game – either past memories or a dream for the future – submitted in writing or on video.
And the reason for choosing 67 people? According to the CVB that’s the number of days it takes to see all of Orlando’s 100 attractions. There’s no word whether they’ll let the 67 winners stay for 67 days which would mean they’d have to give away 4,489 hotel nights, a substantial chunk of moolah for any organization.
Speaking of moolah, the CVB also plans to raise $16,750 for the non-profit organization “Smile Train,” which will fund surgeries for 67 children with cleft lips and cleft palates. Now there’s a good reason to part with a little of your moolah.
Spearheading this tsunami of smiles are “Orlando Smile Ambassadors” Kyle Post and Stacey Doombos, best friends from New York City who won a contest last year to spend “67 days of smiles” in Orlando and then help find the other 67 people who we still don’t know will or will not be spending 67 days in Orlando. Hoteliers in Orlando are getting very confused at this point.
I ran into Kyle and Stacey a few weeks ago in Orlando as they pitched the contest to a group of conventioneers, most who were smiling, with a few looking as if they may have spent too much time smiling into the bottoms of their glasses the night before. That’s them in the video above, taken during their smile tour throughout North America, the UK and Europe.
You can find out more about this toothy and cheeky promotion, as well as pitch your own grin and submission, at VisitOrlando.com/smile.
Better yet, go to the site and donate a few bucks to the “Smile Train.” That’s certain to make a lot of kids smile.
Jim Ferri
