Ads want to make sure ‘it’ stays in Las Vegas

A new comedic Vegas ad campaign may try to curb tourists from posting scandalous photos and details about their friends' Vegas shenanigans on Facebook and Twitter.

Recently, thespians showed up for auditions for new commercials, says a source who describes them this way:

In one spot, a woman shows up at a restaurant and a nightclub, but friends shun her because she tweeted private information about them.

In another one, a man at a bachelor party is shunned by friends for posting an apparently naughty photo on Facebook.

In both, the man and the woman who posted on Twitter and Facebook were referred to as "Vegas Violators," as in "Don't Be a Vegas Violator," because what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

But a representative for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority told me Monday that "Vegas Violators" was too negative a term. So other tag lines are being tested, something along the lines of "Protect the Moment."

So, six new ads are in the works -- three "What Happens Here" spots and three companion spots, a la "Protect the Moment" -- that could run mid- to late September.

Of course, the "What Happens Here" campaign is the most effective tourism campaign of the past two American generations. Forbes has named it No. 1.

"What happens here stays here" is not true for celebrities. Stars have made international news here for getting midnight married (Britney Spears), busted on coke charges (Paris Hilton) and luring ladies (Tiger Woods, Anthony Weiner).

But it is truer that many unfamous tourists get away with everything from nightclub hookups (read my book someday) to making the acquaintance of professionally naked ladies.

Norm Macdonald has been telling a joke on tour this year that the "What Happens Here" campaign means you can bed a Vegas hooker and she won't tell your wife -- unlike those gossipy hookers in your hometown.

As for whatever "Protect the Moment" will be called: I've noticed at clubs and pool clubs that many tourists aren't taking photos of fellow revelers in indelicate positions, especially at Bare, Tao Beach and other topless pools.

Thus, many clubbing tourists are already onboard with the clever "Protect the Moment" idea. We journalists -- not so much. What happens in front of our eyes ends up in the newspaper, because we love our readers.

SIGHTINGS

Carmen Electra partied at Azure Luxury Pool on Saturday. ... Joe Jackson hung at Lavo over the weekend, looking, uh, Jackson-esque.

Doug Elfman's column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Contact him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.