Thanks to a server crash, I'll repost this today.

A couple of years ago, Royal Caribbean International raised some eyebrows by ending their long running "Get Out There" and replacing it with "The Nation of Why Not."  The "Nation" asked "Why," and did "Not" like the new marketing campaign.  While a legitimate argument could be made for needing to replace a marketing program using an Iggy Pop song with questionable lyrics, how its successor was choose escapes me.

Thankfully we can enjoy not having the bizarre and unfathomable "Nation of Why Not" ads canned for 2012.  They will be replaced by "The Call of the Sea."

I took a look at a sneak peak sent to most Crown and Anchor members, and if the new adds are still a bit....quirky, at least they are catchy this time.  If my ears are serving me well at age 37, the previous voice of "Get Out There," can be heard coming from a large sea shell.

The TV spots basically have a large sea shell, which rings like a phone.  People, maybe random individuals, or actors looking the part, pick the shell up, and are lured to the sea by the "voice." The people are from all walks of life.  Parents with cute little kids, blue collar workers, each telling the "voice" about their stress' in life, or how long since they were at sea. At first, I wasn't sure how the ad was supposed to hook me.  But when you watch it for a bit, and then remember it is likely intended for folks who have never cruised more than anything, it grows on you.

In the end, the ads have one key aspect that other lines tend to gloss over.  You are on a ship.  You are at sea.  You are escaping the world.  The new ads really do something many, such as myself, have argued for.  That is, a return to the thing that makes all cruses special, the fact you are on a ship, in the ocean.  There will always be a powerful feeling of romance about that, which should never be forgotten by the lines.