Because of ‘CSI’, I want to go to Las Vegas!!
Because of ‘The West Wing’, I want to vote Democrat … errr visit Washington!
Because of ‘Law and Order’, I think I want to visit New York?!
Because of ‘The Taking of Pelham 123’, I’m not going to use the subway. :eek:
I’m in Montreal, and I’ve seen ads for Las Vegas a lot recently. I also saw a “Come to Mississippi” ad sometime this summer, and I see many ads about the wonderful things to see in New york State. These are mostly on American channels, though, so I suppose they’re trying to boost internal tourism.
As far as I know, there’s not very much on Canadian channels about US tourism. But that’s ok, I visit my southern neighbours often anyhow. 
Similar to the above… I see ads for parts of the US from time to time, but I’ve never seen one for just the US. It’s a little… obvious.
Back in Quebec, I remember seeing TV ads for New York State and Vermont (Although the latter tended to be locally-targeted farming advertisements). I don’t watch TV here very much, but I haven’t noticed much. I seem to remember a New Orleans thing around Mardi Gras, but I don’t remember for sure.
The only time I’ve seen one for the whole US has been in spring of 2002. In addition to the rather depressingly desperate sea-to-shining-sea one that’s already been mentioned, there was a more upbeat commercial sponsored by (I think) a consortium of US-based airlines, with a theme something like “Come back, we miss you.”
I know I’ve seen some for individual US states, mostly on the big European channels. Certainly for Florida, and I think also New York and Hawaii. Some of these have been sponsored by the states’ tourist boards, some by airlines that have routes to that state.
Coincidentally, our local newspaper is running ads reminding advertisers of an upcoming deadline for a special advertising suppliment, “USA 2004”. That will mostly be local companies that sell travel and travel-related products, however.
Never seen any ads hereabouts for the USA. Plenty for southeast Asia though - Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia especially.
I have seen ads for Croatia, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Egypt, the UAE/Dubai… maybe others
I swear I saw one for North Carolina recently.
No, actually. Good point.
We get plenty of NZ, Macau, Philippines, Egypt, UAE and Indonesia. And one for Malaysia about every five minutes on every channel conceivable (well, it worked 'coz we went there in July). And we get some commercials promoting Hong Kong, which is strange, because that’s where we live. I guess they don’t want us to leave.
After I wrote what I wrote above, it’s occured to me that the “We miss you” theme was certainly used in commercials shown in the US encouraging Americans to travel overseas again - to Britain, maybe? Anyway, that means I’m less certain that the more upbeat American commercial used the same theme, though it may have done so - the only thing I’m sure of, is that there were at least two commercials for US tourism in general during that time, something I have not seen before or since.
In The Netherlands I can’t remember ever having seen a commercial for general traveling to a specific country. National tourist agencies over here seem to advertise more in printed media like magazines. It looks like that’s different in other countries.
The Ads do usually mention Anaheim, so unless my US geography is really screwy we’re talking about Land not World.
calm kiwi probably has the right of it – it’s a heck of a jaunt just to California (approx 12 hours give or take) – and the airfares advertised are usually to LAX. (Thinking about it now I do recall some competitions where the prize was a DisneyWorld vacation… but not normally in travel agency ads).
Ah, you’d be talking about our 3-part scenic advertising epic: The Lord of the Rings. 
I didn’t see the post 9/11 ones, but the original one with the original G Bush made it sound like they couldn’t believe people weren’t holidaying in America/ I felt like phoning the White House and askign for one of those Presidential Invites as I’m Irish and the INS can treat you rather badly for having the audacity to suggest you want to go to the US for a two week holiday 
God help you then if Northern Exposure hooked you.
Yeah, but the whole point of the ad is to make people want to COME here.