There
has been something of a feeding frenzy among the news
media of Scotland and northern England over the staking
of rival claims to be the birthplace of the Dracula vampire
legend. The light-hearted dispute centres around the Aberdeen
and Grampian Tourist Board adopting Dracula for their
latest marketing campaign and effectively telling the
tourist authorities in Yorkshire, "Hands off the
Count. He’s ours!"
According to Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula came ashore
in Britain at Whitby, which has since claimed him as its
own. But, as revealed in Netribution last week, an earlier
draft of the classic novel included a landfall at Cruden
Bay, Aberdeenshire and Stoker is known to have holidayed
frequently in the small fishing hamlet of Whinnyfold,
over a period of seventeen years. In 1895 Stoker was a
guest at Slains, the sinister castle nearby, and two years
later he published Dracula. This visit, and early novel
draft, led Beverley Tricker, of Aberdeen and Grampian
Tourist Board, to adopt Dracula and use him to bring fresh
blood to their latest marketing campaign.
Inthe
1960’s the vampire legend of the novel grew, with
the release of the film Dracula, from the Bray
studios of Hammer Films. This starred Christopher Lee,
who, for many film fans remains the quintessential screen
vampire. This film really caught the public imagination
in ways earlier Dracula films had not, leading to the
release of a whole raft of follow-up films centred on
the Dracula story. Its popularity was universal and helped
spread the Stoker-inspired legend right around the world.
The media took to the rival claims story immediately,
with all the papers giving news coverage. Beverley Tricker,
Marketing Manager of the AGTB and author of the original
"hands off our vampire" demand letter to her
Yorkshire colleagues, was invited to a debate with Scarborough’s
tourist chief on The Big Breakfast TV programme. There
was widespread coverage of the story in newspapers, on
television and on radio.
The
Netribution prize for colourful vampire reporting goes
to BBC Scotland’s Aberdeen-based reporter Colin Wight.
Taking a lead from Professor Van Helsing of the Stoker
novel and despite the lateness of the hour, Wight immediately
headed for the dreaded crumbling edifice of Slain, armed
only with a film crew. There, he managed to capture the
gaping empty window sockets and crumbling towers of the
now disused castle, but also some twilight footage of
the makes-your-flesh-creep variety, complete with sinister
black ravens fluttering to rest on the parapet as the
sun’s rays started to sink beneath the horizon, supported
by "approaching menace" variety music.
In the interest of balance, he added a clip of a Yorkshire
spokesman upholding their local claim verbally, coupled
with some footage from Whitby’s Dracula museum of
a rather bemused curator upholding the claim quite literally,
with a rather stiff Count Dracula being eased up from
his coffin.
It has to be said that on the current showing, thanks
to Colin Wight, BBC Scotland has the lead on all rival
media, by a neck.
Meanwhile,
the person most responsible for all this activity, after
Stoker himself, Aberdeen tourist marketer Beverley Tricker,
has pronounced herself satisfied with the press interest.
Ms Tricker points out that the marketing campaign she
is undertaking is to revitalise Aberdeen and Grampian’s
tourist appeal, repairing serious damage inflicted by
the foot and mouth emergency.
She says, "The publicity is worth a substantial amount
of money and exposure on national TV is invaluable. It
is publicity you could never buy."
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>>> archive >>>
There
has been something of a feeding frenzy among the news
media of Scotland and northern England over the staking
of rival claims to be the birthplace of the Dracula vampire
legend. The light-hearted dispute centres around the Aberdeen
and Grampian Tourist Board adopting Dracula for their
latest marketing campaign and effectively telling the
tourist authorities in Yorkshire, "Hands off the
Count. He’s ours!"
Inthe
1960’s the vampire legend of the novel grew, with
the release of the film Dracula, from the Bray
studios of Hammer Films. This starred Christopher Lee,
who, for many film fans remains the quintessential screen
vampire. This film really caught the public imagination
in ways earlier Dracula films had not, leading to the
release of a whole raft of follow-up films centred on
the Dracula story. Its popularity was universal and helped
spread the Stoker-inspired legend right around the world.
The
Netribution prize for colourful vampire reporting goes
to BBC Scotland’s Aberdeen-based reporter Colin Wight.
Meanwhile,
the person most responsible for all this activity, after
Stoker himself, Aberdeen tourist marketer Beverley Tricker,
has pronounced herself satisfied with the press interest.
