Can a Fake Reality Show Keep Spring Breakers Away?

New York Times

05-02-2025

How much does Miami Beach want spring breakers to know they aren't welcome?
Enough to create an ad for a fake reality show demonstrating just how little fun visitors looking for debauchery will have.
The spot, for a show called 'Reality Check,' features a cast of good-looking young people having their spring break ruined by a plethora of rules. They are lectured by the police for drinking on the beach and playing loud music, they groan about a curfew and they grouse about $100 parking.
'I'm so sick of crying,' says one of the characters.
'Consider this your reality check. Spring Break and Miami Beach don't mix,' read the YouTube caption for the ad, which was released on Tuesday.
The video is the latest salvo in a yearslong campaign by Miami Beach officials to discourage rowdy revelers from descending on their island city, where miles of white sand beaches and a renowned nightlife have long attracted merrymakers. Since 2021, Miami Beach has enacted a variety of temporary measures during the most popular spring break weeks, including curfews, bag checks at the beach and the banning of outdoor seating along Ocean Drive, which runs along the beach.
Last year, Miami Beach's mayor and police chief said that the efforts had helped to reduce crime. But the city has also faced criticism, with some tactics drawing charges of racism and lawsuits over civil rights and over-policing.
In a memo detailing this year's campaign, the city manager for Miami Beach, Eric Carpenter, said the ad was developed by the city's Office of Marketing and Communications, in collaboration with the creative agency VML.
'The message is clear that Miami Beach is not a place for raucous behavior and that our laws and regulations will be fully enforced,' Mr. Carpenter wrote in the memo.
The 'Reality Check' ad points viewers to a website that lists the many prohibitions and encumbrances the city will throw up to prevent even the heartiest partyers from enjoying themselves during the busy weekends of March 13-16 and March 20-23: no novelty vehicle rentals, raised towing fees, sobriety checkpoints and the closure of all parking lots in South Beach, a section of Miami Beach that typically heaves with tourists.
Many of the comments on the video, which was posted on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and X, reflected the views of local business owners, who see spring break as a major financial opportunity, with one saying the tactics could turn the town into a morgue.
Others, though, were glad to see the public relations campaign instructing young people to seek their depravity elsewhere.
'As someone who lived in South Beach for fifteen years, I LOVE THIS. Go home!' Joe Trohoski, a former resident of the city, said on Facebook.