To Entice Families, Dewey Markets a Tamer Side

DEWEY BEACH, Del. -- As mid-Atlantic beach towns go, Dewey Beach is a bit like the cool guy in school -- the one with the motorcycle and the tattoos. He's fun, he's wild and you could never bring him home to Mom.

But now, Dewey insists it's all a big misunderstanding. Sure, he says, he has a checkered past, but he's a changed man, and he deserves more respect.

Starting this season, Dewey has launched an ambitious, unprecedented marketing campaign to convince families that they are the town's most important customers. The effort to prioritize tetherball over tequila shots and bonfires over beer could represent a major shift for the town that has always been defined primarily by its oldest bars.

"There's already enough happening for the college kids and the young adults, but there's never been much going on for kids," Dewey Beach Mayor Dell Tush said. "The balance just got a little out of whack."

It's hard to dispute Dewey's wild side.

On Friday night, the official opening of summer, hundreds of drunken 20-somethings stumbled down Route 1, popping in and out of the dozen bars that line the main drag. The most popular spots had lines. Many women ignored the unseasonably cool weather, sporting miniskirts, halter tops and stilettos.

"Dewey rocks!" one intoxicated young woman shrieked as she tottered down the street. "Whooooo, this is so much fun!"

Dewey wants to show families that there is fun for them, too. The town's seven-month-old marketing task force has spent $10,000 on new activities to do just that. The Chamber of Commerce's new slogan, "Nightlife Plus," emphasizes activities such as family bonfires and PG movies on the beach.

"It's fine to have a lot of people who like to come down and drink and party at the bars, but that's not the only town we are," said Dale Cooke, a town council member who serves on Dewey's marketing committee. "That reputation was well-deserved at one point, but reputations are hard to get rid of even when things have changed."

What has changed, Cooke and other town officials say, is not a decrease in the amount of nightlife options in tiny Dewey -- in fact, four new restaurants and bars are opening this season -- but an increase in the offerings for the non-bar-hopping crowd. They hope that the town will come to be known not just for its nighttime revelry, but for its beach fun as well.

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Dewey's image as Delaware's answer to Cancun or South Beach started from its earliest days. Although its larger neighbors, Bethany Beach and Rehoboth Beach, evolved from church retreat camps, Dewey -- which incorporated in 1981 -- grew in popularity because visitors were allowed to imbibe on the beach. Since then, the town's summer population has ballooned to as many as 30,000 on the weekend, compared with slightly more than 300 during the off-season.