In this month's press release announcing his bid, the film-maker, who produced and directed the campaign, stated: ''His world-renowned '100% Pure NZ' campaign has played a huge part in attracting a record number of visitors to the district.''
Mr Tompkins' mayoral campaign slogan is ''100% Pure Passion''.
However, his role is being queried by Tom Dery, the worldwide chairman of M&C Saatchi, the advertising agency that developed the campaign 17 years ago.
In a statement to Mountain Scene, to ''set the record straight'', Mr Dery, who has a home in Queenstown, said: ''The strategy, complete creative development including the positioning line '100% Pure NZ', the logo, the typeface and the chosen music were all conceived and developed by the creative department at M&C Saatchi headed by Tom McFarlane, who is the regional creative director.''
Film production company Cranbrook Films was appointed to film the TV commercial, with Mr Tompkins directing, he said.
Mr Tompkins said he had not claimed to be anything more than a part of the team that created the campaign.
He said he was part of a ''village'' of creative people whom Mr McFarlane put together to pitch for the job.
''It was on the flight back to Wellington [from Queenstown] that creative Alan Morden coined the '100% Pure NZ' term.''
George Hickton, Tourism New Zealand's chief executive 17 years ago, said Messrs McFarlane and Dery were the campaign's architects and Mr Tompkins' reference to ''Pure NZ'' being ''his'' campaign was ''gilding the lily''.
-By Philip Chandler
