Tourists want truth in advertising, millions of Americans were told on Friday as the controversy over Bermuda's advertising campaign continued.

"Buyers are getting smarter. They want the truth. You must tell the truth," said eminent US travel writer and NBC's Today show travel editor Peter Greenberg.

Mr. Greenberg was speaking from the Hawaiian island of Maui on NBC's popular morning television show, which devoted an entire segment to the controversy surrounding Bermuda's current advertising campaign, and in particular the advertisement featuring a bikini-clad model against the background of a Maui beach.

In an interview with Mr. Greenberg, Today's Al Roker described Bermuda as "one of the world's most popular vacation spots", and asked him how much an ad's visual impact influenced someone to say: "I want to go there."

With the Bermuda ad in mind, the travel writer said that, while a picture was worth a thousand words: "It is either Bermuda or it isn't Bermuda".

When Mr. Roker asked if "this kind of thing" was "common in the travel industry", Mr. Greenberg responded that it had had happened "a number of times before", citing such examples as Qantas airlines promoting Australian beaches with a shot of a Hawaiian beach; a hotel in Santa Barbara, California with a Pacific Ocean background when in fact Santa Barbara is inland, and a Hawaiian hotel which described itself as "steps from the beach" when it was, in fact, about a mile from the beach and would need many steps to get there.

While acknowledging that a statement had been received from the Bermuda Department of Tourism defending its actions, he dismissed it as "a rather lame excuse of a statement".

The statement, issued by Lou Hammond & Associates in New York on the Department's behalf, referred to the utilisation of "abstract images to convey the destination's legendary elegance and sophistication", and said, in part, that "three of the abstract images incorporated were from standard stock photography, commonly utilized to help produce highly impactful, yet cost effective advertising campaigns. These particular images were included because they accurately captured the sense of style and atmosphere that one indeed finds in Bermuda".

The NBC segment included photographs of the advertisements featuring the bikini-clad woman and the computer-enhanced fish "swimming" in a circular pattern.

Among the "teasers" leading up to the segment was one entitled 'Is Something Fishy in Bermuda?'

The interview between the two men, which included some lighthearted banter, ended with Mr. Greenberg reiterating that "audiences are getting smarter and want the truth", and reminding the public that, when looking at advertising material, since they could not be sure that what they saw was what they were actually getting, they must take responsibility for finding out what the real story was first.

Finally, when Mr. Roker asked the travel writer whether he was, in fact, in Hawaii, Mr. Greenberg quipped: "I am in Maui, Bermuda."

Bermuda's controversial new advertisements have attracted worldwide media attention, although Tourism Minister Renee Webb has claimed the publicity will be good for the Island.