JoCo family wondered why a London double-decker is promoting KC. Here’s the reason
Jen Black and her husband, Jeff Stalnaker, are in London while their son is at a soccer — excuse us, football — camp being trained by coaches from the storied Premier League club, Arsenal.
On Wednesday, the Johnson County couple had just exited the city’s underground Tube a few blocks from Westminster Abbey when Stalnaker told his wife: “Oh my God, look.”
Rolling past them was a double-decker tour bus, hardly an unusual sight on the streets of London. But the specialty vinyl wrap on that bus was a full-blown ad for Kansas City.
A huge outline of the United States on the side had the well-known red “KC” heart marking Kansas City’s location in the Heartland.
Next to it were the words: “For The World From the Heart,” and “Kansas City, Missouri.”
“I went running down the street trying to get a picture of it,” said Black, who works in marketing.
She couldn’t catch up to the bus, but it came rolling past again a few minutes later.
“Admittedly, I saw the heart and at first I thought, ‘Charlie Hustle? Why is this here?’” said Black, who added it made her happy to see the iconic heart.
She didn’t see a website on the bus, but the word “world” hinted that it might have something to do with the World Cup matches coming to Kansas City next year. At least that was her guess.
And she was right.
“Yes, Visit KC is responsible for the wrapped double-decker promotion in London,” Makenzie Wolters, Visit KC communications manager, told The Star by email.
As the city’s chief hospitality sales and marketing organization, Wolters said, “Visit KC is focused on innovative ways to promote Kansas City in key markets — both domestic and international.
“In the past, we’ve placed out-of-home advertising — things like wrapped vehicles, digital displays, billboards, etc. — in Germany, New York City and Chicago, just to name a few.”
Visit KC staff members also traveled to London this week where they hosted two events for the UK travel trade, international media and content creators, Wolters said. One was a speakeasy gathering “to highlight Kansas City’s unique culture and energy,” she said.
Kansas City has appeared on national and international travel rankings published by CNN, Time Magazine and the New York Times, among others.
Visit KC considers the United Kingdom a key international market as the city prepares to welcome the world in 2026.
Kansas City is already on British radar. Earlier this year it made the BBC’s list of 25 best places to visit in 2025, a new guide.
The list focused on destinations “using tourism to support local communities, protect the environment or preserve their unique cultural heritage.”
“Kansas City, Missouri is making 2025 its glow-up year,” BBC travel journalist Eva Sandoval noted.
Sandoval wrote in the guide the city “is busily promoting its creative arts scene and status as one of North America’s barbeque capitals, all while launching an urban revitalization plan that includes new museums, entertainment districts and hotels.”
There’s just one double-decker bus kitted out with the KC message in London, Wolters said.
“It will be up for majority of June, and since it’s a tour bus, it will stop by popular sites like the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and more,” she said.
Visit KC doesn’t have to pitch World Cup to Black’s family.
“Our son is obsessed with Arsenal,” said Jen, who noted that most of the kids at soccer camp there this week are from the United States.
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