supposed to feature the Island's people and its `Island spirit'', has not been seen by its own subjects yet.

It is true that a selection of hoteliers, travel wholesalers and journalists have seen part or all of the campaign. The Royal Gazette was given a videotape of all the TV and radio ads on Monday, the same day the campaign was due to begin in the US.

But the Bermudian people have not been shown the campaign, on which millions of dollars will be spent as the Island is, according to the campaign, reintroduced to the US market.

This campaign is quite different from previous ones, and some of the TV ads are visually striking. The radio ads take the uncharacteristic, for Bermuda, approach of taking on competing destinations by name.

Ultimately, the judges of the campaign will be the US public, and the proof of its success will be based on how many ask about Bermuda holidays and ultimately take their vacations here. It also goes without saying that Bermuda's tourism recovery will depend less on the brilliance of its advertising than on improvements in the quality of its product.

It is hard not to feel uneasy about this campaign. The radio ads in particular could backfire. One boasts of Bermuda's superiority as a golfing holiday destination to Scotland and makes a dubious claim about the Island's lack of rainfall -- a claim visitors will no doubt find laughable when they are caught in one of our periodic rainstorms Another ad tackles Venice and is, in its way, quite amusing as it ridicules singing gondoliers and smelly canals. But it begs the question of whether Bermuda is competing with Venice or Scotland. It is hard to imagine that potential visitors are trying to decide between the two destinations any more than visitors would try to decide between climbing Mount Everest and spending a week on a Carnival Cruises fun ship.

The TV ads do not take on any rivals but try to be clever; one compares striking film of diving on a shipwreck with returning to the womb; another describes how longtails take six weeks to reach the Island in order to mate -- a journey which will only take a visitor two hours; and one of the funnier ones takes on the taboo subject of the Bermuda Triangle -- and compares it to a giant golf water hazard.

The print ads for newspapers and magazines are more straightforward and appear to be quite compelling -- and they also have the advantage of being able to target niche and geographic markets more effectively than TV.

Still, in addition to being from the East Coast, wealthy and a lover of the outdoors, the ideal Bermuda visitor's profile will now require an additional feature -- a sense of humour.