Toronto's newest tourism campaign is not like the others

Toronto the good has been laid to rest in a new tourism campaign, which promotes the city as Canada's downtown.

The video spot from Tourism Toronto positions the city as a place to "let your guard down" and makes Toronto look, dare I say, cool.

Of course there are the obligatory references to Bautista's bat flip, the Raptors and Drake (the campaign tagline is "the views are different here"), but the video also shines a spotlight on the city's diversity and openness by showcasing Pride and our various multicultural neighbourhoods.

The video, developed by J. Walter Thompson, will launch south of the border, with more campaign ads rolling out later this spring.

This campaign is a rapid departure from how the city used to market itself. In the 1980s for instance, Toronto tourism videos played into typically Canadian tropes with images of snow, skating and cross-country skiing. Not so in 2017.