A £2M advertising drive to promote pride in the North-East was launched yesterday.

Regional development agency One NorthEast and the North-East Assembly launched Here. Now. - a marketing initiative aimed at updating the region's image.

The promotional campaign, which will include advertising and public relations, will be kick-started with around £2m over the next three years.

Over the next 12 months the campaign will be inward-looking and aimed at improving North-Easterners' perception of their region.

Only then will the "positive messages" be pushed in other parts of the UK and abroad, to encourage investment in business and tourism.

Another £700m will be used to develop a booming business infrastructure for the region.

The campaign - launched at the Ramside Hall Hotel, near Durham - will include television advertisements featuring celebrities such as Elton John, footballer Ian Wright and Oscar-winning film producer David Puttnam.

The move comes after market research in this region, South-East England, France, Germany, Japan and the US revealed that beer and football are seen as the North-East's best assets abroad.

Dr John Bridge, One NorthEast chairman, said: "We need to change the way we perceive ourselves as a region. If only we could demonstrate the total belief in our ability to win on the football field, in our everyday lives.

"That is the passion we need to change outdated perceptions in this region. We must start talking ourselves up, believing that we are a match for other regions in this country and across the world."

Paul Novak, regional secretary of the Trade Unions Congress, believes that the new initiative is good news.

He said: "It is important to get out there and sell a positive image of the North-East.

"But it is important that alongside that £2m, there is investment in things that really matter such as education, jobs and health."

However, the campaign didn't win universal support. John Shuttleworth, a Durham county councillor who has led a campaign to save jobs at the Blue Circle cement plant in Eastgate, County Durham, believes the cash could be better spent.

* What do you think of the campaign? Write to Hear All Sides, The Northern Echo, PO Box 14. Priestgate, Darlington, DL1 1NF.