DATELINE: 25 February 2003

BERMUDA EMBARRASSED BY BARRACUDA

The latest ad campaign from Bermuda's Tourism Department shows a photo of a diver in a school of barracuda. Unfortunately a local photographer spotted that the photo wasn't of Bermuda - as schooling barracuda don't visit the Atlantic island.
Bermuda-based photographer Graeme Outerbridge became suspicious of the Tourism Department's advert when he realised that a photo of a model on a beach used in the ad was actually taken in Hawaii. Images aimed at divers - a photo of a person swimming with a dolphin, and an underwater shot of a diver with barracuda were both, it transpired, not taken in Bermuda.
The government agency defended the use of stock photography in it's advertising campaign. A spokesman was quoted in the Bermuda Royal Gazette claiming that the photos were used to evoke an emotional response.
Outerbridge, however, remains unimpressed and described the practice as dishonest and misleading to divers.
The advert was published in February's edition of the US-based Travel and Leisure magazine.