Manassas City plans to help promote its downtown businesses with a new advertising campaign, complete with photos, aimed at Christmas shoppers.
The only problem? “We have virtually no shots of people in masks,” states an email sent to business owners from the city’s economic development department.
The email goes on to state:
It is impossible to run a campaign using the theme we have chosen without these. While we are working to arrange for more professional photography, we want to launch the campaign next week after we conclude our SmallBusinessWeek campaign.
We are asking you to submit photos of your business featuring yourselves, staff and customers wearing masks. If your photo is selected for one of our ads you obviously benefit from the additional exposure, so be sure to submit shots that have your business name in them.
Those who want to submit photos may email them to the department of economic development.
The city is expected to kick off its annual holiday events on December 2 with a Christmas Tree lighting at the Manassas Museum in downtown on December 2, and a modified version of the city’s annual Christmas parade the following day. The final detail of these events has not been made public.
More than 500,000 people visited Downtown Manassas last year.
