Bermuda's good fortune in being made the centrepiece of Old Navy's spring advertising campaign should not be underestimated.

This is publicity that money can buy, but it is much better when someone else is spending it. Better yet, there is no taint of product placement or that this has been engineered through some kind of marketing deal.

Indeed, Tourism Minister Ewart Brown was surprised to hear about the ads. That's all to the good; Old Navy want to sell Bermuda shorts (albeit not your father's style) and want to project an image of Bermuda as fun and relaxed to accomplish that. If Bermuda reaps any benefits as a result, then that's just gravy.

It is worth remembering two things about this.

Fashion trends are fickle. If Bermuda shorts are trendy this year, then they probably won't be 12 months from now. Hot pants or something will have replaced them. In the meantime, the Island should take advantage of the moment.

Second, this Old Navy promotion probably had nothing to do with the rather more overt Bermuda product placement done in conjunction with designer Peter Som at last month's New York Fashion Week, as Dr. Brown hopefully suggested. Clothes chains plan their fashion selections and marketing months in advance. It is unlikely that someone from Old Navy saw Mr. Som's shorts and the Bermuda Tourism tent last month and decided to change their whole campaign.

So Dr. Brown should probably refrain from trying to get more credit than Bermuda deserves for this.

However, Bermuda should take advantage of this bit of good fortune and should look at finding ways to capitalise on it. Draws for Bermuda shorts-buying old customers to spend a weekend in Bermuda would be one device and there are plenty of others.

Dr. Brown said he wanted to add more sizzle to the Island's image and ad campaigns like this do that. But no one should forget that all of the marketing in the world is wasted if visitors have any reason to be dissatisfied with their stay once they get to the Island. So every effort must be made locally to control costs and to provide superior and friendly service.

It's no wonder people do not trust the Government when it keeps producing whoppers like the one Premier Alex Scott rolled out on Friday during debate on Government's travel budget.

Mr. Scott said the Progressive Labour Party Government is spending no more money on travel than the former United Bermuda Party government; it's just that the PLP is more upfront about reporting on it.

There is a scintilla of truth in this; MPs and “the listening audience” often have to spend the first hour or so of House of Assembly business listening to Ministers read off a laundry list of places visited, receptions attended and, most importantly, compliments received, from their latest trips overseas. Rarely do these statements contain much of substance. Usually, there isn't room after the Ministers have finished congratulating themselves.

But none of that obscures the fact that the annual travel Budget has doubled since 1998 from around $2.5 million to $5.1 million. Those are the facts, and no amount of spin can obscure it.

Perhaps more importantly, the Opposition also managed to drag out of Mr. Scott how much money has been budgeted for the Bermuda Independence Commission. The answer, which cannot be found in the “national budget” or in the Budget Statement, is $100,000, although this could go higher, according to Mr. Scott.

So far, $30,000 has been spent, most of it presumably on a trip to Washington and New York along with the production of the Commission's first interim report, which contains a list of unanswered questions and says Bermuda might benefit economically from an expanded shipping register and changes to airline agreements, precisely the same arguments that were made in favour of Independence in 1995 and earlier.

Perhaps the future travels of the BIC will actually produce information that most Bermudians don't yet know. Now that would be money well spent.