Shadow Tourism Minister David Dodwell has given the seal of approval to the Island's new rebranding and advertising campaign.

But Mr. Dodwell said he is concerned about how much money will be spent on the television advertisements, which he believes do not offer value for money.

The new campaign, featuring 14 print ads using the logo of Bermuda shorts, and two television spots, was unveiled earlier this month by Tourism Minister Renee Webb.

Developed by New York agency Arnold McGrath Worldwide, the campaign will be launched in the United States in January and represents the first major television presence for Bermuda in five years.

Mr. Dodwell told The Royal Gazette: "I am pleased with the campaign and rebranding. It has focussed on one of the core icons of Bermuda, the Bermuda shorts.

"For a few weeks now I've been thinking about what would work, like the Bermuda onion, the triangle or the shorts.

"A concept of a campaign about 12 years ago was the shorts, so it's nice to go back to something that has broadly worked before and to modernise it.

"It is classy, crisp and the photographs work well with the use of water and people, both Bermudians and visitors.

"We have to try something and this is a pretty good crack at it. But time will tell." He said he thought television advertising was to "scattergun," and other marketing efforts such as e-mail were more focussed.

"My concern with the TV commercials is that TV advertising is not targeted enough. I know they are targeting specific channels, but I don't believe we need to spend as much on TV advertising as we are doing," said Mr. Dodwell.

"It is scattershot marketing and you never know whether you get value for money because you can't measure the results, whereas with e-mail marketing you can."