You undoubtedly played truth or dare as a kid. Heck, maybe you still do. Truth or Dare Denver, A new Visit Denver campaign, hopes to use nostalgia for that game to show off Colorado's simultaneously adventurous and chic sides, aimed at bringing meeting planners to the city.
It's a decent effort, and we like the idea -- Denver (and Colorado, really) is full of experiences most people don't have access to. As a result, the city can 'dare' visitors into connecting over new experiences and show off what makes us so proud to live here.
But as with any campaign that attempts to appeal to a large group (and a group of meeting planners, at that), the edgy sometimes slides into tame. Many of the suggested dares may be seen as yawn-inducing (or maybe we're just all adrenaline junkies). So when Visit Denver started promoting these dares digitally, we shouldn't have been surprised when the campaign was hijacked on twitter by proud Denverites.
The Denver Diatribe, a humorous alt-podcast in the city, spearheaded an effort to create decidedly more daring Denver dares on twitter via the hashtag #DenverDares. Some are inappropriate, some are hilarious, all are worth a quick read.
"We love Visit Denver's new "Truth or Dare" ad campaign," said Denver Diatribe Co-Host Ron Doyle to The HuffPost, "And the smartphone app is hip and gorgeous, but we think the dares they offered were, well, tame."
Doyle continues, "We hope they understand that we all share the same love of Denver. It's just that some of us express that love in strange ways, like silly Internet memes and naughty jokes."
Doyle says Visit Denver is tentatively scheduled as guests on the Diatribe's podcast next week (June 1) "to confront us about our Twitter shenanigans."
Justin Bresler, VP of marketing and business for Visit Denver, says he gets the joke. "The fact that locals are taking ownership of it, I think it makes the city look like that much more of an exciting destination," he told The HuffPost. "Whether or not anyone actually wants to do half the things that are in the hashtag," well, that's a different matter.
We've assembled a handful of the dares from the twitter feed, below. Hundreds more can be found on twitter, in addition to a Denver Diatribe Podcast on the subject.