Surf City works on its a-peel

Eron Ben-Yehuda

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- A promotional campaign designed to attract more

tourists to Surf City is already is bearing fruit -- literally.

The city has joined other popular Orange County visitor destination spots

like Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm in an advertising campaign that

features their photographs on a box of oranges. A sample box was unveiled

at the city’s Downtown Subcommittee meeting Friday.

“You know, when you leave Hawaii, you buy pineapples,” said Diane Baker,

president of the Huntington Beach Conference and Visitor Bureau. “We’re

hoping you buy oranges.”

Baker will encourage local businesses to display brochures aimed at

catching the eye of the city’s 11 million annual visitors, who can then

call a toll-free number and for about $25 have a box of 16 oranges sent

anywhere in the United States within a few days, said Gary Mead, who

conceived the idea.

Ironically, the county is no longer a major producer of the fruit that

inspires its name. Over the years, the land became too valuable for

agricultural uses. So the oranges used for the promotion come from San

Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego, Mead said. But they are packed and

shipped out of Orange County -- at Orange-based Quality Citrus Packs, a

company owned by Mead.

The city paid $1,000 for 5,000 boxes with a photo of the pier at sunset

and a caption touting Huntington Beach as “The Southern California

Experience with 8 1/2 miles of pristine beach where the surf is always

up.”

Proceeds from every box sold will help pay for a new box, so the city can

expect even more of them to be produced at no extra cost, Mead said.

While city officials don’t expect to make a lot of money on the orange

box sales, they do expect it to pay off in tourism dollars.

And joining other tourist attractions in a coordinated campaign is a

great way to pool resources and save money, Baker said.

“It shows [the benefits of] everybody working together,” she said.

FYI

To order a box of 16 oranges decorated with a picture of the Huntington

Beach Pier at sunset, call (800) 684-6000.