A land-locked Canadian province featured a British beach in a video promoting itself to tourists.

Advertising executives charged with attracting visitors to Alberta decided to feature Bamburgh beach in Northumberland. A promotional video contains a clip of a boy and a girl running through sand dunes and tall grass on the beach.The reality emerged after Peter Bailey, a Canadian boat enthusiast, spotted it on the internet and attempted to pinpoint the stretch of water concerned. After a flurry of e-mails to tourism officials, he was informed that the area involved was in fact an eight-hour flight away.

The re-branding was handled for the province by Edmonton PR firm Calder Bateman, who said they were unable to comment on work done for clients because of the terms of the government's contract. Olga Guthrie, manager of the brand initiative for Alberta's public affairs bureau, said: "This slide represents Albertans' concern for the future of the world. There's no attempt to make people think that the place pictured is Alberta."

Sheelagh Caygill, marketing executive at Northumberland Tourism, said: "We think it's quite funny, a landlocked province in Canada presenting an image of itself as an island. But Northumberland Tourism is actually really thrilled that a picture of a beach in our area is being used for the Alberta campaign.We see it as promoting the beauty of the north of England, which is often neglected. I hope that when people in Alberta realise where the beach is, they'll come to visit."

I wonder if they'll be selling sticks of rock?

For authenticity it was decided to add some typical Canadian folk.

The original was here