An ad only a Minnesotan could love
Not sure what you think of this (click here); I find it on the provincial side akin to the "We like it here!" sign that use to be over the tunnel in the Dome. We're the 13th market in the country which ain't much but deserves a little more than Joe Mauer being the most exciting thing about the spot. It may play in Warroad but not at FTLOSBW HQ.
8 Comments:
Awful. Absolutely awful. Why do we feel the need to be so defensive? I wonder if Caifornia laughs at us when we say things like "more shoreline than california". riiiiight. it's just the same. really, it is.
I like to think of this as the "Aquaman Ad". I feel like i'm walking into a nationally televised interview with Aquaman and Superman, and Aquaman keeps saying how they're both real superheroes and finally superman says "OK. I've had enough. I can fly. You're embarrassing yourself."
"More art per capita?" Really? I'm sure the 35 year old father in New Jersey is like: "Hey honey. Let's go somewhere this year that has lots of theaters. But not the place with the most theater options. Let's go to the place that has the most theaters adjusted for population. Why would we want to go to New York or Chicago - yes, there's so many there to choose from, but the quality is so diluted by the number of people living in the state based on current census numbers. I'd rather see if we can find a rural town with three kids having a puppet show - that's the metric i use. Suck it Broadway!"
What hit the cutting room floor in this piece of shit? "More access to free wi-fi"? Or maybe "More restaurants than Milwaukee and Des Moines put together (not including german food)." How about "Skyways to protect you from the dangerously cold wind chills"?
I also love that this ad is supposed to encourage people from outside the state to come to minnesota but we fill it with a bunch of inside jokes to make minnesotans feel good about who we are that nobody else would get. Do you think anyone in Texas caught the mary tyler moore hat tossing reference? Do you think anyone in Illinois knows what Zumbrota is?
My point isn't that we're small time. It's that we aren't, but we constantly feel compelled to advertise to anyone who will listen that we are. We actually go out of our way to tell them. Nobody asked how big your penis was, Jimmy. So don't say "Really small".
March 29, 2011 at 10:48 AM
You guys need to lighten up. Here is the other end of the spectrum, the ATL song by Dallas Austin. The city of Atlanta paid 8 million for this song:
http://atlanta.metblogs.com/2005/10/25/atls-new-theme-song/
Ask yourself, what would you rather have? If you say the ATL song you are a liar.
March 29, 2011 at 2:39 PM
I agree with DTK that this ad makes us appear completely insecure as a state. Perhaps they were marketing to people who live in-state and trying to persuade them from leaving for vacation? Or perhaps it was targeted at Nebraska, Iowa and the Dakotas? In either case, it's just bad marketing, as it is the opposite of single-minded. As us MBA jackwads (MCA term) learned in school, the most effective marketing focuses on one benefit. After watching this ad, I'm not sure what the benefit of MN is? Great outdoors but also great shopping nearby with good restaurants and lots of theatres for a city our size? A good positioning statement should be shiort and easy to understand. That being said...wow, there are a lot of cool things to do in MN...
MCA - great post on Fleet Foxes. I'm working up a response, as it deserves some chatter. I can almost hear the bourbon in your post, and I'm guessing it was the result of a night of solo boozing and music-listening to escape the NCAA tourney? Family must have been in Florida, huh?
March 29, 2011 at 4:11 PM
P.S. The ATL song is pretty awful too...why do medium sized municipalities insist on this sort of thing!?!? NY, Chicago, LA, SF and the like do not feel the need to publish jingles, ads, etc. Atlanta, Minneapolis, Denver, Cleveland, SEattle...they likely all have jingles.
March 29, 2011 at 4:13 PM
Alternate lyrics:
"we've got the regular season manager of the year"
"we've got the most superbowl appearances per capita"
"we've got ice fishing in may"
topHat _[]_
March 31, 2011 at 7:36 AM
I am far from the marketing expert that most of you guys are, but I am a professional opinion giver.
It all stems from the bad song here, I think. It's stupid and annoying and conveys corniness and cutesiness instead of any gravitas. And the lyrics kill everything the images could have conveyed. Dtk's right on - it's a bunch of self-referential stuff that isn't going to sell anyone from outside the state except on our smugness.
The basic idea I could support - Minnesota has a bounty of both cultural and natural wonders, which is a rare combination. Not that the combination is necessarily a driving point for tourists, who generally want one or the other and don't do both in one trip. But, anyway, mangling the point by bragging about theaters per capita is certainly idiotic, as dtk points out. They'd do better to just play up the contrast between the Cities and the Boundary Waters and tie it up with "you can have both in Minnesota" or somesuch. The specificity of the ad kills it here. Let the place speak for itself.
Anyway, somewhat tangential, but I think the "Pure Michigan" ads - which perhaps none of you have even seen/heard, and certainly not rts or BG - have been a really good campaign. They convey a sense of place and time and even a nostalgia for something you may have never even experienced.
BG - Hendrick's actually, but man, I'm predictable in my old age. Yes. The fam was in Florida on Spring Break. I'd had a couple beers watching hoops with Tapani and others, then home early, f-ing around on iTunes and scouting new purchases with a large "Gold Country Sports" plastic tumbler full of the clear.
Some people get angry when they're inebriated. Some stumble around. Some love anything and everything they see. Some have delusions of grandeur. I embrace hyperbole.
April 4, 2011 at 11:39 AM
Might I just add, why did they have to bring so much cheese and schmaltz to this commercial? Dweeby guy playing acoustic guitar next to a dude in camo in a canoe? You know what that's representative of? What does that look like? Fucking Wisconsin is what that looks like.
Minnesota has bequeathed to the world Bob Dylan, Sinclair Lewis, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Charles Lindbergh, Garrison Keillor, Prince, Charles Schultz, and the Coen Brothers, and is home to the Guthrie, one of the world's greatest chamber orchestras, and the most vibrant choral music community in the United States. Cultural monuments. And Cheryl Tiegs, for crying out loud. Show some pride and take yourself seriously.
Yes, I'm intentionally leaving out certain counterexamples like Louie Anderson, and pretending Michele Bachmann doesn't exist.
Wisconsin, on the other hand, has given the world what, exactly? Shitty cheese, shitty beer, hats shaped like shitty cheese, lots of bowling alleys. Robot World. The Fonz. Liberace. The place is not serious. I mean, thank heavens for Justin Vernon or there would be no legitimate art to redeem that place. I can't think of another not-tongue-in-cheek "artist" or cultural contributor of any sort from Wisconsin. Seriously, name a significant writer from Wisconsin. Before Bon Iver, "Best Band to Come out of Wisconsin" was a contest between Steve Miller and The Violent Femmes.
Why are we adopting their aesthetic?
April 4, 2011 at 2:49 PM
Oh, god, I forgot about the Bo fucking Deans. JHC on a popsicle stick, America's Dairyland is a cultural toxic waste dump.
April 4, 2011 at 7:07 PM
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