Gary Fineout
The new video from rapper Pitbull looks like a four-minute advertisement for Florida because that’s exactly what it is.
The Miami music star last year signed with the state’s tourism marketing agency for an undisclosed amount and this past week released a video for the song “Sexy Beaches” that includes scenes from nearly two-dozen Florida beaches stretching from the Panhandle to Key West.
The video features images of women frolicking in the surf and sand as well as pictures of iconic Florida hotels such as Miami Beach’s Fontainebleau and the pink Don CeSar Hotel in St. Pete Beach. It ends with an image of #LOVEFL written in the sand.
While Visit Florida relies on nearly $80 million in taxpayer funding it has asserted that contract details are trade secrets. So it’s not clear how much Pitbull, whose real name is Armando Christian Perez, is getting paid.
“We are not permitted to disclose certain aspects of our agreement,” Visit Florida spokeswoman Kathy Torian said.
When media outlets such as the Orlando Sentinel asked for a copy of the contract nearly all details, including who represented the entertainer, were blacked out.
The song – which includes lines such as “I wanna go somewhere exotic/Let the summer search my body” – was written before Pitbull signed with the state. The song first appeared on Pitbull’s 2014 album Globalization.
Torian said that the video was first released on the star’s Vevo channel but would also be distributed through his social media accounts. The video has already received more than 1 million views on YouTube.
