Miami Beach city government's hate affair with spring break is officially dunzo.
That's the thrust of a viral one-minute ad that features three millennial-looking people of color ending their "toxic relationship" with spring break.
The city commissioned the video to deter masses of young miscreants from invading the seaside municipality's shimmering sands in March.
The clip has racked up 3,000 reposts and nearly 5,000 likes on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter), garnered 601 upvotes and 311 comments on the r/Miami subreddit, and generated dozens of TikTok remixes.
It remains to be seen whether the spot will discourage spring break invaders. Many TikTokers and X users are roasting the ad, noting its racist undertones because many of the "tourists" being targeted are young people of color (and many of them are "visiting" from just across the causeway in Greater Miami-Dade County).
The City of Miami Beach paid $250,000 to an ad agency to produce the video, city spokeswoman Melissa Berthier tells New Times. "We expected the actors to be young and representative of the diversity in Miami-Dade County," Berthier adds.
"Miami Beach Is Breaking Up With Spring Break"
The ad opens with a photogenic, dark-skinned woman sporting a multicolored headscarf and sitting on the sand. Looking directly into the camera, she says, "Hey, we need to talk."Then comes a series of cuts showing a handsome Hispanic-looking fellow sitting on a bench on Ocean Drive; a cute, curly-haired Latina at South Pointe Park; and another young Black woman with long braids in front of a lifeguard stand on the beach. They take turns reading from a script made to sound like someone terminating a toxic relationship.
Hispanic Guy: "This isn't working anymore."
Headscarf: "You just want to get drunk in public and ignore laws."
Long Braids: "Do you even remember what happened last March?" [Holds up a smartphone that plays scenes from last year's spring break mayhem plastered with the negative headlines it generated.]
Curly Hair: "That was our breaking point, so we are breaking up with you."
Headscarf: "And don't try to apologize and come crawling back. This isn't safe, so we are done."
"Casting Call for Miami Beach Tourism"
The commentary and the demographic profiling were by design, according to a casting call sheet obtained by New Times and attached to the bottom of this story. Auditions took place last month and were handled by Castingland, a Miami-based company that finds the "right talent for advertising, fashion, movies, music videos, and TV shows," according to the firm's website.
According to the call sheet, which was somewhat cryptically headlined "Casting Call for Miami Beach Tourism," the gig paid $2,500 per actor plus a 20 percent agency fee. Castingland sought professional actors, noting, "We're not looking for 'models.'" Castingland wanted "lovely people with natural beauty, native English speakers or bilingues with NO accent."
The call sheet wanted three actors between the ages of 20 and 30. One was to be a Black woman who is "ironic but funny." The second was to be a woman of Hispanic descent who is "more serious and very articulated [sic]." The third was to be a "funny" Caucasian male.
"It is crucial that you read through all the notes thoroughly and follow the instructions meticulously to ensure the best audition possible," reads the casting sheet. "In general it would be great if all the talents can go from a very funny performance to a more serious or ironic one."
Actors were required to submit a self-shot video showing them reading the lines that appear in the finished ad.
Part of a Larger Campaign
"Breaking Up" is one element of a multipronged City of Miami Beach media campaign that also includes billboards warning partygoers that this year is going to be a buzzkill. As part of the crackdown, the Miami Beach City Commission rolled back its decriminalization of marijuana by removing an optional civil penalty for people caught with 20 grams of weed or less.During the second and third weekends of March, city officials will jack up rates at parking garages to $100 per vehicle, restrict beach access and conduct bag checks, implement DUI checkpoints and license-plate readers, and shut down Ocean Drive sidewalk cafés.
Miami-Dade Black Leaders Respond
Reached for comment by New Times, Stephen Hunter Johnson, a lawyer who serves on the Miami-Dade Black Affairs Advisory Board, said he found the ad offensive. "I think it was tone-deaf at best and outright racist at worst," says Johnson. Pointing to the deliberate choice of casting "diversity," he notes that the curly-haired Latina's line, "It's not us, it's you,” is reminiscent of the struggles experienced by Hispanics and Blacks living together in Miami today.
"Beyond that, the audience — Black tourists — will notice the sole Black face is the one holding up the videos of the outlandish police responses in years past," Johnson adds. "Additionally, the 'and don't try coming back' line indicates that Black tourists aren't ever welcome."
Miami Beach elected officials don’t want Black people visiting their city, Johnson contends. "I think that the political strategy of demonizing Black tourists has metastasized such that the voters of Miami Beach have adopted an outright hatred of Black people as a whole, and that is why they elected who they have elected," he elaborates. "And it's sad."
At a Miami-Dade County Commission meeting earlier this week, Commissioner Keon Hardemon expressed disgust with Miami Beach's spring break policies during discussion of an agreement to send Miami-Dade County police officers to assist Miami Beach law enforcement.
"I don't want to be a part of anything that can be deemed to be onerous, Draconian, heavy-handed, by a municipality that is especially effected upon people that, for the most part, are just like me," Hardemon said. "I just don't think that we should write them a blank check to mistreat people in our community.... I think they're doing it wrong."
Casting Call Sheet for Miami Beach Tourism
obtained by New Times
