“Invest In Your Love”: Romantic desires, YouTube videos, and the online marketing of Tahiti

Abstract

In this article, I explore the relationship between evolving technologies of image production, different kinds of desire, and how Tahiti is marketed as a tourist destination. I focus the discussion on an award-winning online contest, “Invest In Your Love,” which Tahiti Tourisme North America launched to encourage tourism in the wake of the 2008 worldwide economic crisis. Little has changed over the centuries in the dominant Western image of Tahiti as an exotic paradise, although how that paradise is interpreted is influenced by personal and historical situations. What has changed, however, is that viewers can now manipulate the images to express their personal perceptions, dreams, and desires. By encouraging viewers to create their own image of paradise, and to engage in imaginary travel and self-transformation, the “Invest In Your Love” contest cleverly played with blurring boundaries between various categories as well as kinds of desire. This was seen not only between categories such as producer and consumer, here and there, and private dreams and public videos, but also between love and money, and professing love for one’s partner and love for a brand. I explore these contemporary trends and the entanglements between categories by bringing together ideas and perspectives from two fields not usually joined in conversation; namely, cultural anthropology, and brand marketing.