For your viewing pleasure might I suggest... Ohio, Dallas and LA. They seem to insinuate that
1) People from Ohio want to come to Louisville to meet women with tattoos on their ass (Might as well be a bulls eye)
2) Louisvillians who want to move to LA will make their parents cry.... WHAT!?
3) Black, gay men in Dallas who like tofu will be accepted in Louisville... Hmm... Its still in the south last time I checked, this might be a hard sell...
I didn't see how I could let this aggression stand, man. I fired back:
Dear Anonymous PR guy at Share Louisville,
I have to say, I'm a born and raised
Louisvillian, and these commercials are embarrassing.
A young man from Ohio wants a girl with a tattoo on her butt?
A girl moving to LA isn't going to be recognized for her intellect, but her bra size?
A man in Atlanta is dying because there aren't any hospitals there, and too much traffic?
A man in Dallas wants to be able to shout "I eat TOFU" from the steps of the
JUSTICE BUILDING!? What!?
Honestly I think we can sell ourselves a lot better by playing up our strengths rather than the weaknesses of other cities. And by strengths I mean actual STRENGTHS and not advertise
that we have cheap tattooed girls here who also happen to be appreciated for
their intellect (which, by the way... is a lie).
YES there are
great jobs here
YES there are fun things to do
YES the city could use an
influx of smart, creative, young people.
But seriously, a bunch of
slo-mo, sob-story, obnoxious, and down right embarrassing commercials will not
get the job done. I know they say any PR is good PR, but... Hey, when
you make us look like idiots, we're the ones who have to live with
it.
Yours Truly,
Not-so anonymous guy, who happens to
be young, smart, creative, has a great job, loves Louisville, tattoo-free,
appreciated for his intellect, has access to hospitals, but sits in traffic in
the morning, hates tofu, and secretly wants to move to LA.Waa waa wee wah! What the hell are these people thinking!? Who thought this was a good idea? There's been a lot of arguments that these run in the same vein as John Stewart or the next to godly Stephen Colbert... I have to say... I don't get that comparison at all. Let's look at what's supposed to be funny in these ads and see if it makes any sort of important or original commentary... The Ohio ad seems to make fun of Louisville more than small towns, and every single ad seems to forget the fact that people are usually extremely proud of where they come from. Ancestarally or otherwise. So when you completely trash where they come from... you look desperate to get anyone to come to your city. This ad is exemplary of what people inside the box seem to think belongs on the outside. Its not clever, its not funny, and I still fail to see the point. Whatever, this ain't a single's town anyhow... time to blow this popsicle stand.
6 comments:
I actually thought it was funny. You've seen Jon Stewart right? It's that kind of humor.
Cheers!
-Paladin
If it was made in that spirit, I think they've missed the mark. It is funded by Greater Louisville, Inc., and its definately in an attempt to bring people to the city. However, I fail to see not only the demographic they're going for, but also the point of it. Jon Stewart's always got a point when he's making fun of something by using forced earnestness to create Irony (like Colbert). But these commercials... even if they're supposed to be funny, they're still making fun of the city. I mean Tattoo on her butt? Tofu? I don't get it... And its causing a minor uproar in the 'Ville. When you don't get advertising... its bad advertising.
As they say, there's no such thing as bad publicity. I think the idea behind the whole thing was to get people talking about it, and if that was the goal, it's certainly working.
I think it's a wonderful idea and even like the commercials. I hope GLI keeps this up and creates even more things that are 'outside the box'.
I too once thought that there was no such thing as bad publicity, but Louisville isn't an attention-hungry B-list celebrity, it's a city, and a decent city at that. Get a bunch of people talking about how much Louisville sucks because of these commercials, and THAT'S BAD PUBLICITY.
If you want people to move to Louisville, show the history, sites and attractions. I am not saying don't be funny, just do a little better job reading your audience. These won't appeal to many folks outside the greater metro area.
And John Stewart had nothing to do with this...it's not the same humor in the least.
Looking back, this has been our most popular post so far... interesting. With much thanks to Paladin and www.morethanderby.com for sending us some traffic. Much appreciated ;). Disagreements aside, just having someone read our stuff is sweet.
So following up on this post, I have to say that I believe (and I’m not sure) that GLI is also doing these radio spots which title Louisville as "Possibility City" and talk about a lot of the cool things we've done in Louisville. These radio spots are hilarious! You have a great voice talent talking about all the cool things Louisville’s done—much in the same vein as the voice over of the Vault Soda commercials (“Get to it!”). The voice is funny, the verbage is clever and pops, and its generally an interesting radio ad, which is hard to pull off because commercials on the radio just annoy the hell out of everyone when they’re used to listening to everything they want on their iPod.
So this is my follow up question, for anyone interested:
Why the hell aren’t we doing TV spots like that?
And I still hear those radio spots being played but conveniently haven’t seen those “Share Louisville” spots on TV anymore. Intriguing. I wonder if the outcry among those intrepid denizens of possibility city was enough to put an end to them. Just a thought.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=LoFoP22Yy_8&feature=related
i think this person is more 'john stewart' clever than the real ads.
wonder why the city needs to attract the young, creative professional? 'cause the city drove the homemade ones off by wanting the to keep the insular attitude so explicitly displayed by those adds. hate others, get hate on. leave kentucky, those 'awful big cities' are popular because they don't judge and pick on people for being...well not kentucky.
somethings will never change. the xenaphobic nature of kentucky is one of them. unless, of course, you want them to buy the booze and bet the ponies, but you must leave rapidly, we only know how to disgrace the rest of the country.
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