A TikToker shared an ad campaign from the city of Miami Beach, Florida that urges spring break visitors to party somewhere else this year, and viewers can’t get enough.
The post praising the ad comes from TikToker Uptin (@uptin), who has previously gone viral for a post about how he was forced to tip a robot bartender. This time, the TikToker had some thoughts about Miami Beach’s anti-tourism campaign urging people on spring break not to visit the city.
“I have never seen a government try this hard to get you to not visit their destination,” he says in the video.
“The Miami Beach government literally put out a one-minute commercial saying that it’s gonna have $100 parking. This is all to deter springbreakers from coming,” Uptin adds.
He then goes on to say, “The past few years, spring break has gotten really out of hand in Miami, causing a lot of chaos, and now Miami Beach wants nothing to do with any of this.”
In addition to the $100 parking initiative, Uptin says Miami Beach is also enforcing additional police checks and curfews, all in an attempt to deter young party-inclined vacationers from visiting the city. Then, he plays the commercial.
“This isn’t working anymore,” the ad begins. “And it’s not us; it’s you.”
“Our idea of a good time is relaxing on the beach, hitting up the spa, or checking out a new restaurant,” speakers in the ad continue. “You just want to get drunk in public and ignore laws. Do you even remember what happened last March? That was our breaking point. So we’re breaking up with you.”
Miami Beach imposed a temporary curfew and declared a state of emergency last year after two shootings left two people dead, as the Miami Herald reported at the time.
Uptin’s video received 5.8 million views, and viewers quickly became obsessed with the city’s ad campaign.
“I can’t lie whoever developed this ‘Spring Break BreakUP’ concept ate,” one viewer wrote.
“I love how harsh this commercial is,” another said, to which Uptin responded in agreement, “Same. It’s not even like ‘if you do come, please be respectful’. It’s like do NOT come.”
“Not Miami having more boundaries than me,” another joked.
@uptin #greenscreenvideo #greenscreen ♬ original sound – Uptin
A lot of people even seemed to endorse the need for the commercial.
“I’m not mad at it. People don’t know how to act and wreak havoc on any and everything there,” said one person.
“People who dont live in ‘spring break’ towns don’t realize how bad it gets,” agreed another.
The hype for the commercial comes shortly after a Florida resident went viral for warning springbreakers not to go to Panama City Beach, Florida, for the festivities this year.
The Daily Dot reached out to Uptin via Instagram direct message and to the city of Miami Beach via email for further comment.
Update 8:44am CT, March 8: In an email to the Daily Dot, Melissa Berthier, Communications Director for the city of Miami Beach, shared the following statement:
“Fed up with lawless behavior and a string of violent acts in recent years, city leaders are implementing tough new measures aimed at putting an end to spring break. These include restricted beach access, parking garage closures, DUI checkpoints, license plate reader details, and heightened police enforcement for consumption of alcohol in public, drug possession and violent behavior.
The city launched a marketing campaign aimed at notifying potential spring breakers and any other people coming to cause trouble, that Miami Beach will not tolerate disorderly behavior. The ‘Miami Beach is Breaking Up with Spring Break’ campaign is underway with targeted digital advertising throughout Florida — with a focus on our tri-county area (Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach) — along with our extended drive-in and national fly-in markets.
The message is clear that Miami Beach is no longer a place for raucous behavior, and that our laws and regulations will be fully enforced. The campaign features a variety of text-message conversation graphics in which we convey: ‘Hey Spring Break, we’re over’ along with a video that can be seen here.
We hope this campaign will dissuade unruly crowds from coming to Miami Beach during this time. We really can’t experience another year like the last few. Here are some recent stats:
Last year, the city had two fatal shootings. Five people were injured the year before.
Last year, police made 573 arrests and 615 the year before.
More than 100 guns were taken off our streets last year.
Police and Fire have received more than 8,000 calls for service during the Spring Break period in the each of the last two years—nearly a 20-25% increase from the previous months in each of those years. That is a huge and costly stress on city resources.
Additional information can be found on www.miamibeachfl.gov/breakup.”
