“And the skies of night were alive with light, with a throbbing, thrilling flame; Amber and rose and violet, opal and gold it came.”

So reads Robert Service’s The Ballad of the Northern Lights, an iconic poem that now opens the Yukon’s first-ever national commercial.

Millions of Canadians will view the new ad, unveiled this morning at the Yukon Visitor Information Centre, on 24 networks and specialty channels this month.

The promo, which runs in 30- and 60-second spots, features Yukoners snowshoeing across a pristine landscape and huddled around a campfire near a bulb-rimmed cabin beneath a shimmering neon sky.

Sparks dance as local actor Chris McNutt, decked out in toque and parka, invites Canadians to trek north for “sites to make your heart glow.”

Tracey Bilsky and Jason Bilsky —Sport Yukon’s executive director and the Yukon Hospital Corp.’s CEO, respectively — also have a cameo, laughing with friends and staring skyward, “lost in the wonder,” a narrator says.

The high-production-value ads aim to “position Yukon as a travel destination year-round,” said Elaine Taylor, the minister of Tourism and Culture.

“This campaign represents the first time an original television commercial has been developed and filmed to market Yukon on broadcast television, and done in partnership with our local agency using local talent and crew.”

Taylor took over the tourism portfolio on Jan. 16, following a sweeping cabinet overhaul, but has already served in the role from 2002 to 2011.

Canadians can look for the ad on CTV News and TSN broadcasts of hockey and curling, as well as the History Channel, Home and Garden, National Geographic and Showcase during shows “like Gold Rush and Dr. Oakley, Yukon Vet,” said a Tourism department spokesperson.

Tourism Yukon is developing a second winter commercial that will air next fall, according to a departmental release.

Premier Darrell Pasloski is set to unveil the commercial to “Outside audiences” at tonight’s Yukon reception in Ottawa during Yukon Days at the national Winterlude festival, the release stated.

“This is an exciting time for tourism marketing in Yukon,” Neil Hartling, the chair of the Tourism Industry Association of the Yukon, added at this morning’s announcement.

Hartling said last September that he was looking for a “greater return on investment,” with dividends paying off in the form of more local jobs and a sustained cash influx for the territory through the winter months, mitigating the boom-and-bust cycles of the Yukon’s past.

The tourism industry now contributes about $250 million to private sector revenues each year.

Roughly four per cent —  $114 million — of the Yukon’s GDP was attributable to tourism in 2012, a larger proportion than in any other province or territory.

The territory has seen a steady growth in the number of visitors — about three per cent per year — since 2004, according to the Tourism department.

The bulk of the increase came via visitors from around Canada.

The pair of ads is part of a $3.6-million marketing drive — dubbed Yukon Now — announced by the federal and territorial governments last September. It builds on the $5.8 million already set aside in the budget for tourism marketing.

The cash comes in four $900,000 payments — two from the territory and two from the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency (CanNor) — over two years.

Other “consumer-focused initiatives” included user-generated photo, video and story submissions, now posted on Travel Yukon’s newly live Tumblr site.

A three-part webisode series is also in the cards, launching on the Tumblr page Feb. 19.

A smaller percentage of the Yukon Now funds is slated for international marketing.

The commercial — a co-production by Brudder Productions of Vancouver and Yukon-based Pixelbox Studios that included a camera-equipped flying drone — goes on to quote Service on the magic of the northern lights: “It swept the sky like a giant scythe, it quivered back to a wedge; Argently bright, it cleft the night with a wavy golden edge.”

The promo opts not to include other lines in the poem, which highlights the hardship, solitude and cold indifference of “a tundra vast and dark and grim and lone.”

It avoids the stark realism of past calls for people to the North.

“Mosquitoes, flies and gnats will not only be annoying but will cause bodily harm,” reads an ad for labourers on the Canol Pipeline during the Second World War.

The full one-minute commercial is visible at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rwobc_pJOE