So what do you think about this. Personally I think it is pretty stupid and was not needed!
Fargo sign doctored for adJanell Cole
Forum Communications Co. - 05/15/2007
BISMARCK – A new North Dakota tourism commercial features an image that doesn’t exist.
Among the shots in the Tourism Division’s ads unveiled Monday is an old-fashioned theater sign, complete with chasing lights surrounding its name: Dakota.
It looks a lot like the Fargo Theatre sign.
In fact, it is the Fargo Theatre sign, doctored to show a different name.
“The theater shot was the Fargo Theatre that we altered for this commercial,” Tourism Director Sara Otte Coleman said.
“Because we have an obligation to represent the whole state, and not just one city,” she said, “we changed the sign to read ‘Dakota’ to better represent the nightlife visitors can experience in our larger cities. Our goal has been and will continue to be ‘to showcase all of North Dakota and our unique attractions and activities’ and this decision was made to help accomplish that goal.”
Otte Coleman said no other images in the ads are altered.
Fargo Theatre Executive Director Margie Bailly did not know an adulterated image of the theater’s sign was being used in a state commercial.
“I’m disappointed because we consider ourselves a theater for the entire state, an icon for the entire state,” she said. “It’s disappointing we can’t have icons that belong to the entire state.”
Others in the state apparently disagree that “Fargo Theatre” is a statewide icon. Otte Coleman said the decision about the sign was due to reactions to last year’s printed visitors’ guide.
“In light of the negative response we got last year from several communities after featuring the Fargo Theater on the cover of the travel guide, we ‘generalized’ the sign on the Fargo Theater,” Otte Coleman said. “We felt it would benefit Fargo and the entire state more in its more generic form than to not show the theater at all.”
She would not name persons or a specific city that complained last year, but said, “It was a big deal.”
Online directories show there are at least two Dakota Theatres in North Dakota, in Crosby and Wishek. Another, Dakota Twin Theatres in Bismarck, closed several years ago.
The two new TV commercials unveiled Monday are meant for viewers outside North Dakota, including in Canada, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Both combine Western and Indian scenes with urban shopping and nightlife shots.
Nicknamed by the Tourism Division as “Never Sleep” and “Wake Up,” one invites visitors to “come to North Dakota and see why legends never sleep.” The other says, “Blaze a new trail to North Dakota (and) wake up in a land where legends never sleep.” The “Wake Up” ad includes the “Dakota” theater sign.
The ads were produced for $67,420 at Odney Advertising in Bismarck. The firm has had the Tourism Division’s contract since 2001 and developed the “Legendary” brand the state has used the past several years for its tourism marketing.
Marnie Piehl of Odney said the firm altered the Fargo Theatre image for the Tourism Division.
“Their obligation is to represent the state and we helped them,” she said.
Urban scenes in the two ads are from Grand Forks and Fargo, Otte Coleman said. They include the West Acres mall’s interior, the Doolittle’s restaurant patio, the HoDo and the Scheels’ indoor Ferris wheel in Fargo, and window shopping, a coffee shop and a hotel in Grand Forks.
None of the brief shots identify specific cities or businesses, and only those familiar with the places would recognize where they are.
The Western scenes include Medora’s Bully Pulpit golf course, rodeos and a gathering in an earth lodge at Knife River Indian Village.
Cole works for Forum Communications Co., which owns The Forum. She can be reached at (701) 224-0830 or
[email protected]