The lights are back on in Las Vegas.
That’s the message of a simple, yet pointed, new TV spot introduced Tuesday at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority’s monthly board meeting.
The 30-second ad — which is set to run on a host of television networks, including CBS, NBC, ABC, Travel Channel, ESPN, E! and BET — starts with a dark “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign before a man in a suit flips a power switch to light the sign up.
The spot, created by Las Vegas creative firm R&R Partners, will air starting Friday, officials said.
Billy Vassiliadis, the CEO of R&R Partners, said it was important that the ad be direct and feature one of Las Vegas’ most well-known features — its lights.
“Vegas has always surprised me at how quick it responds and how quick it recovers,” Vassiliadis said. “It’s so hard right now to make hard predictions, but I do believe, like we always have before, we’ll be the first to recover.”
At the end of the commercial, with a panoramic view of the Strip in the background, a “now open” message appears.
The gaming industry returned June 4 after nearly 80 days of being shuttered because of the pandemic. The gradual return featured a handful of properties, on and off the Strip. More are scheduled to open this month.
In a statement issued Tuesday, Caesars CEO Tony Rodio cited “strong demand” and interest from customers following the openings of Caesars Palace, the Flamingo, and Harrah’s Las Vegas last week.
“We were thrilled with the opening last weekend,” said LVCVA CEO Steve Hill said. “The properties are learning as we go. This is a new situation for everybody out there. We’re not going to give up on the messaging of being smart, being healthy, and taking care not only yourself, but the people you’re with. That’s going to be important for quite a while, but the momentum carrying forward is the result of Vegas being Vegas. What happens here still only happens here and our customers see that.”