Ads May Have Helped Boost Shore Attendance Numbers

By David Madden

OCEAN CITY, N.J. (CBS) - You've probably heard and seen those ads for the last couple weeks, urging you to come back down the shore. But did they work over the Memorial Day weekend? Unofficially, it looks like they did.

More than 400 times in the week leading up to Memorial Day, you heard "Stronger than the Storm" ads on the radio.

That ad campaign was the brainchild of the MWW group, a national advertising agency with $25-million from the feds to spend.

"We are finding, anecdotally, already that people are fueling traffic," Spokeswoman Shannon Eis said. "They're having an increase in bookings and reservations, increased diners in restaurants."

And crowds on boardwalks appeared to be normal. Official tourism figures from the state are not expected before the end of the year. But the campaign in nine states and eastern Canada will continue through Labor Day.