NO MOMENT OF ZEN: Plans for Stewart/Colbert visit fall apart

Without the funding from a third $25 million grant from BP, Mark Bellinger says the Okaloosa County Tourist Development Council had to scrap plans to bring in political comedians Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert.

“That’s the bottom line,” the TDC’s executive director told The Log Thursday. “We can’t go forward with it.”

As part of a marketing initiative last fall, the TDC had planned to use $10 million of the BP funding to bring in national talk show hosts and television personalities to perform live broadcasts from the sugar-white beaches along the Gulf Coast.

The spots were designed to showcase the virtues of the area and combat the negative image that was portrayed by the national media in advance of the one-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on April 20.

Meeting with BP’s representative to the local TDCs Tuesday, Bellinger said that the funding hasn’t been approved or declined yet. He said that BP was originally supposed to let the TDC know about the grant back in October, but the date kept getting pushed back further and further.

“He didn’t say that we were not going to get it,” Bellinger said, “but he also didn’t say we were going to get it either.”

When The Log asked Bellinger if the political comedians’ supposed liberal stance on politics played any part in the decision, he quickly replied no.

“We wanted to make this about entertainment,” he said. “We asked the Weather Channel, Fox News, CNN, and Mike Huckabee… there was a pretty good mix of Republicans and Democrats.”

For now, the TDC has been authorized to spend $1 million out of their reserves to continue a steady stream of marketing. Out of that money, Bellinger said there are various programs in the works.

The biggest of the promotions is a contest that is searching nationwide for “America’s Most Deserving Mom.” The contest asks for fathers, sons and daughters to submit a 60-second video saying why their wife or mom deserves a vacation to the Gulf Coast.

The winning mother, who can bring along six friends or family, will be treated to a weeklong vacation in a Destin state home, courtesy of Southern Resorts, up to $1,000 in spending money and a brand new Buick Enclave. 

As he looks forward, Bellinger said the focus is still on promoting Okaloosa County and everything it has to offer.

“We may have had to pull back on a few things, but we are still moving forward with a lot of exciting stuff right now.”