Vegas not busy enough

Don't try telling that to anyone waiting in a cab line during this week's Consumer Electronics Show. But with 30,000 new hotel rooms expected over the next five years, the Vegas tourism people figure they'll need millions of more visitors in order to maintain an occupancy rate of around 90 percent. And apparently that requires a new marketing effort. Next week, according to the WSJ, they'll introduce a campaign called "Your Vegas Is Showing" that will highlight non-gambling offerings such as shops, dining and shows (the "What Happens Here Stays Here" slogan will be kept).

After flashing pictures of Mario Batali, Wolfgang Puck and Emeril Lagasse, one of the new ads begins with the image of three girlfriends at a restaurant table, and a voice-over saying, "Three celebrity chefs in three days -- you could write a thesis on gourmet delights." One woman imagines she's being fed by a muscular attendant, then snaps back to reality as the voice-over says: "People might begin to wonder what else you've developed a taste for in this epicurean fantasyland. Hey, cuisine curator, your Vegas is showing." In another, a man decides to buy albino crocodile loafers, imagining himself an international spy with multiple passports and an exploding pen. When he wears the shoes in the backyard at home, his friends eye him suspiciously: "Who really knows what a guy with an outfit like that is capable of?" the narrator says. "Hey fashionistador, your Vegas is showing."

Putting aside gambling and other forms of naughtiness, it turns out that people spend money more foolishly in Vegas than they would in their hometowns (that’s why you’re shelling out $200 for a couple of marginal steak dinners). By the way, Los Angeles has the highest Vegas IQ score of any city in the nation - what a surprise! - so expect to see a lot of the new marketing campaign.