• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, April 14, 2016

I guess there’s just something funny about Oregon, whose interesting confluence of hippies and hipsters comes in for a good bit of mockery in “Portlandia.” Now the state’s tourism agency is taking a lesson from the satirists and embracing satire for advertising, in the form of a new partnership with humor site The Onionthat includes native ads created by the publisher.

The campaign for Travel Oregon consists of a series of faux-travel advice articles published in The Onion’s travel section beginning March 21. The first article, for example, offers “Tips For Setting Up A Campsite” delivered in the publication’s usual tongue-in-cheek tone, including the importance of signing and non-aggression pact with bears and finding “a good spot to hang a string of lights and plenty of occult symbols to ward off mosquitoes.”

Travel Oregon is also placing display ads and a presenting sponsorship message across the Onion travel section. The display ads link to a tailored landing site, youmightlikeoregon.com, which presents the state’s many cultural and natural attractions in a quirky but understated way, and invites visitors to submit their own favorite places in Oregon.

The campaign was created by Travel Oregon in collaboration with The Onion and the tourism org’s advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy.

The Onion isn’t the only publication creating native ads for tourism clients. Over the last year, National Geographic Travel has launched several major content campaigns for tourism clients, including online hubs dedicated to South Australia and Florida.

The content program created by NatGeoTravel for the South Australian Tourism Commission, called "South Australia’s Adventures of a Lifetime," features articles about 30 adventure travel destinations in the state, along with photo galleries, video, an interactive map, and guides with basic information for planning a trip.

NatGeo created a similar content hub, called “Florida’s Pristine Parks,” for Visit Florida, featuring photo galleries and text about parks and natural preserves. Blogs by National Geographic photographers gave readers an inside look at their work as they document Florida’s natural attractions.