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The Las Vegas Strip is slowly awakening after a nearly 80-day slumber due to the coronavirus crisis.
USA TODAY
LAS VEGAS – A new commercial beckoning travelers to return here was ready to go.
The 30-second ad showed a suited man flipping a lever and powering up the slumbering Las Vegas Strip in a spectacular burst of electricity and color.
It was set for launch on Tuesday morning, two days before casinos planned to end the coronavirus shutdown and open doors to visitors for the first time in almost 80 days.
But weekend demonstrations resulted in hundreds of arrests. Police used tear gas, pepper balls and beanbag projectiles to break up protesters, and tourism authorities pushed the launch to Thursday – reopening day.
But things changed again when another violent night of unrest left a police officer shot in the head and a man dead outside a courthouse. The commercial was shelved.
“We pulled the ads,” said Billy Vassiliadis, CEO of R&R Partners, the firm behind the city’s famous “What happens here” campaign and the latest commercials trying to get visitors back to Las Vegas. “We were ready to go, but it felt wrong. Because of the passion and sensitivity and pain our…
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