As Ellen McGirt said in this morning's edition of Race Ahead, "Ijeoma Oluo is a force of writing nature." And, her scathing review of the new Matthew McConaughy epic is as brilliant as it is blunt.
A movie (true as it is) about a white man...made for white audiences.
Australia Tourism's original break-through marketing campaign featured former heart-throb Paul Hogan offering to throw "another shrimp on the barbee." Since then, there has been good work coming from the agency (especially the "bloody hell" campaign, despite its detractors)...but not an iconic spokesperson.
That has changed with the announcement that Chris Hemsworth is the new face of Australia Tourism. But, it's also been open season on securing "faces" for destination marketing this past year. Taylor Swift has signed with New York City while Billy Joel is representing the State. Liam Neeson is doing Ireland. And, there are several more.
Will it work? Hogan certainly did...but an online poll suggests that only 17% of consumers are influenced by star endorsements.
Of course, that is 17% more than the destinations may have already had...
When Luke was trying to get Han to rescue Princess Leia, he tried to tempt him by telling the starman for hire that she was richer than he could imagine. Han's response was, "I don't know, I can imagine quite a lot."
I often view bold proclamations from marketers the same way. If the claim is that you have something for everyone, I am certain I can prove you wrong. If you swear you can meet my every expectation, you better have millions of dollars and a team of lawyers or I'll be able to prove you wrong. And one size fits all...that's just impossible.
But we see it everyday.
Which is why I was so delighted at the tag inside my Republic of Floyd hat (click image) which reads "One Size Fits Most." That, my friends, is provable.
Careful with those grandiose claims, my friends.
For those in America, this Thursday is the holiday known as Thanksgiving. And the media is awash with stories about the latest research on whether we will travel, how we will travel and what we will eat.
Despite warnings for miserable travel conditions in parts of the country, AAA estimates Thanksgiving travel will be up over 4% from last year thanks to sagging gas prices and a rebounding economy. They also believe we will be spending more this weekend than last year.
According to Priceline, 68% of Americans would rather have family and friends stay in a hotel rather than bunk with them. No word whether that's because half of us admit to "getting busy" while staying at family and friends' homes...or whether we all want to avoid a scene out of "The Family Stone."
And then, there's what we will eat. Over the past few years, I've broken with the tradition of carving a bird in favor of a big pot of wicked fine seafood, sausage and turkey gumbo. But, when I'm assigned a dish for a holiday dinner at someone else's house, it's usually the green bean casserole. Mostly because I screwed up the recipe a few years ago...and ended up crushing it.
Which, as a Wisconsinite, is only natural, as we Cheeseheads love our green bean casserole more than any other State in the Union...except Kentucky. Or so says Del Monte.
Bacon and celery salt are two of my several secret ingredients. Yours?
It's a Music Friday Pop-Quiz: Besides being taken from terra firma way too early, what do Patrick Swayze and Jeff Healey have in common?
If you're anything like us, you know they starred together in the movie "Road House," one of our Top 3 "Guilty Pleasure" movies of all time.
Jeff is best known for his hit cover of John Hiatt's "Angel Eyes." So, I guess we'll offer a three-fer today. The aforementioned ballad, Jeff's cover of the Doors' classic "Roadhouse Blues" (which has a lot of odd cutaways to scenes from the movie...but don't miss the ending scene).
But, to see Jeff tear it down...this is the one: "As the Years Go Passing By" from a Stuttgart show in 1995.
Damn, I miss his style.
I'm sure that some of the people pushing for a Minimum Wage over $10/hour in the United States are intelligent. Hell, some probably even went to Harvard.
But, my guess is that those individuals never set foot in the Economics Department.
A new study by the head of the Hospitality School at Pennsylvania State University offers a decidedly dire prediction for the City of Los Angeles, should it hike its Minimum Wage to $15.37/hour ($32,000/year):
1394 Hotel Jobs Lost, $106 million lost in guest revenues, equalling $16.4 million lost in hotel occupancy takes and almost $3 million lost in corporate taxes.
And, that's JUST the hotel community in Los Angeles.
Say what you will about Ayn Rand...but we get closer to "Atlas Shrugged" every day.
A few months ago, we offered the Destination-centric music video of Dan + Shay, celebrating young love in Myrtle Beach. And, we've seen a number of DMOs begin to move down this path.
Our friend Anthony Haag shot us this video the other day. It's a cover of the American Authors' song "Best Day," including loads of Lake County IL shots with cameos from DMO staff, partners and some guys that look like they might play for a football club in the NFC North.
As video is increasingly the medium that moves us all...these innovators are blazing effective trails in consumer awareness and preference.
Well done, my friends.
We live here. We are the worst possible people to judge how we should be marketed.
That should really come from those outside the State who can be objective.
We've seen that a lot, as Zeitgeist has begun testing commercials and online video for likability for select clients. It's quite amazing what the home crowd thinks should work and what actually does.
We've never tested the Wisconsin TV spots. Nobody's ever asked.
What we do know from testing tourism ads that utilize humor is that they tend not to work as well as those that focus on storytelling (aka Pure Michigan). But, that doesn't mean that Wisconsin's don't work.
Indeed, the spot featuring stars from the classic movie "Airplane!" has garnered a boatload of media equivalency. But, does that produce an increase in visitation?
For most of us in the land of cheese, brats and beer, this is old news. The spot debuted at the Governor's Conference on Tourism back in March. Like it or not, we knew what was to come.
But, one of the most respected TV empresarios this State has ever produced apparently just saw the spot for the first time yesterday. And, he posted his utter contempt on Facebook: "The Wisconsin tourism spots parodying "Airplane" are abysmal. The words to describe their badness have yet to be invented."
There. Somebody finally said it. And, within a few hours, over 40 comments from his friends (a large number from the marketing arena), all agreeing that it was horrible.
Being creative is one thing. Banking on the PR value of shooting the spot in the actual cockpit used in the movie is another.
Getting people to actually visit is something completely different.
There...now I've said it.
Destination Marketing Organizations have evolved a ton since the days of Elvis.
But the message is still pretty much the same, even on a Music Friday.
Beth Hockenberry Erickson (Acting CEO at Visit Loudoun) hipped me to this sensational video of the King...paying homage to the "Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce."
The plot line of The Lego Movie (opening this weekend at a theatre near you) centers on the the evil Lord Business (voiced by Will Ferrell) that attempts to end "freestyle play" with a weapon that can glue Legos together. Weirder yet, he plans to do it on "Taco Tuesday."
Past the unfortunately heavy-handed depiction of business people as malevolent, does it strike anyone (besides Tim Manners) as ironic that, since 1998, Lego has "sidelined its freestyle play sets in favor of sets patterned on various movie properties" such as Star Wars, The Hobbit, Harry Potter and others.
Just a thought...
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