Be More Original Please, New Zealand tells Tourists

How sick to the gills are you of seeing the same kind of travel pictures on Instagram We most certainly are.

So it came as a breath of fresh air to see the latest campaign video from New Zealand's tourism agency.

The country has launched a tourism campaign which urges travellers to get original and stop imitating the photos they see online. "Share something new" instead, it says.

The call was made in a two-minute (very funny) video, starring comedian Tom Sainsbury as a member of the "Social Observation Squad (SOS)." The video has Sainsbury following tourists to some of New Zealand's most famous tourist spots, urging them to stop being cliched and traveling "under the social influence."

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"I've been alerted to a situation that's been happening a lot lately," Sainsbury says in the video. "People have been seeing those photos on social media and are going to great lengths to copy them."

"I've seen all this before. We all have," he says. "This summer we're clamping down on anyone traveling under the social influence." Sainsbury then hilariously lists overdone social media posts "You know them. Hot tub back shot. Man sits quietly on the rock contemplating. Hot dog legs."

Instead of the hackneyed shots, he encourages the couple to "share something new."

The video is part of New Zealand's "Do Something New" campaign, which has been running for a while now. Aimed at encouraging domestic tourism, it asks people to rediscover "our backyard with new eyes". A timely message now that COVID-19 regulations are in place. In fact, New Zealand has announced that it will not be opening its borders all through 2021.