In the "Your Tax Dollars at Work" department, KELO and the state of South Dakota make blogging easy:
Oh look! Governor Daugaard has hired Mummenschanz!
These four white horsemen of the Apocalypse will tour the Midwest on a bus chartered (bought?) by the South Dakota Department of Tourism urging people to come vacation in South Dakota.
Our mascots might more effectively make that sale if Abe didn't look like he just got shot.
Other people have pride in their states also. They all advertise also. But we spend much more per tourism dollar than most states. Did you know that Iowa gets much more tourism dollars than we do. And we have Mt. Rushmore. We should watch Iowa for a while. Now I know that was a new thought.
What ridiculous looking caricatures of 4 great Presidents. Must we lose all dignity in the name of tourism? This tremendous waste of resources is brought to you by some political insider who came up with a stupid idea to transfer state resources to himself! Lawrence & Schiller? How much is this costing us, and how much of it is profit to the chair of the state GOP?
I agree with Rorschach. Four of our most noted presidents and they have turned them into the four stooges...
Indeed: there is a huge disconnect between these mascots and the art they are supposed to represent.
This is just stupid.
Roger, I'd like to investigate your point further. Do you have a source with tourism spending broken down by state per capita? I found this set of bar charts from a 2010 Pennsylvania Tourism Office report showing 20 states spending more than South Dakota on tourism in 2009. In raw dollars, we outspent Minnesota and every other neighboring state on tourism promotion.
The biggest state spenders on tourism in 2009:
1. Hawaii ($72M)
2. Florida ($65M)
3. California ($51M)
4. Illinois ($49M)
5. Texas ($32M)
South Dakota spent around $11M in 2009. The FY2014 budget bill gives the SD Department of Tourism $13.1M.
This 2011 U.S. Travel Association paper claims that states can enjoy a $2.50 to $91 (on one North Dakota program!) return on investment in tourism promotion. But that would assume that it's a good promotion.
I suspect people would come to see Mt Rushmore without ANY advertising. The other side of the coin is if the ROI is high for tourism advertising, we should be spending far more money than we are now.
If that does not terrorize small children, I do not know what will!
OMG!?! These 4 look sad and pathetic. You guys wasted your tax dollars on this gimmick...LMAO!!! Ya, after looking at those 4 depressed old men, why would I want to go from where they came from? LOL
Instead of wasting your time hanging out with 4 depressed guys, come out to Oregon this summer...where we have a beautiful coastline and we promise to put a smile on your face!
My opinion is state efforts to market tourism a questionable use of money, but I think this a good marketing effort, and maybe not such a waste. Many professional sports teams have racing sausages or some other gimmick to interest the kids. It's like advertising sugary cereals on Saturday morning TV. Hook the kids, you hook the parents, and you hook 'em for life.
Just because South Dakotans know where Mt. Rushmore is, doesn't mean people in other states do. I see a ton of TV ads in Wisconsin for Wyoming and North Dakota. Both states emphasize a "western" theme. North Dakota's "Legendary" campaign is very appealing and professional, but it's an expected campaign. If people are going to go for the western approach, they're going all the way to Wyoming.
I guess if standing out in a crowd is the measure of successful marketing, this four-headed mascot could make the grade. If a giant wiener can overcome the snicker factor and get business for Oscar Mayer, maybe these guys can, too. But since dignity disappears the moment we put foam heads on dudes, would we have done better to skip the grim faces and go straight for goofy?
You don't want sad looking faces. And they look like they want to die.
Cory, you should send this to Letterman or Leno!
It's a colorful bus, the characters look fun. Some of you just bitch about everything.
WOW, John Hess, for the first time in all the years I have known you, I whole heartedly agree with you.
Nothing quite like bitching about bitching. Unless of course, it is this post bitching about bitching about bitching. I saw Jim Hagen talking about this on KELO last night. Seemed kind of silly to me.
I have suggested they put the tourism 800 number on SD license plates. But so few of us get outside the state that might not do much even if a few hundred million people have never seen a SD license plate.
OH MY GAWD! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Those mascots are the scariest things since the Burger King "King."
John, I agree that the bus looks sharp. But Winston makes the best comparison yet. The BK King is creepy; somebody should have done more bitching in the marketing brainstorm session.
Douglas's idea could be the cheapest marketing idea mentioned yet, and just as effective. But forget the 800 number; put travelsd.com! People will casually check a website on their phone sooner than they will call a number.
They seem to bring a smile to the face of people who see them. They are fun and I think the marketing campaign is done rather well.
I think they are "butt" ugly. Couldn't they have at least made them look like they were alive.
I think that Dennis looks pretty good as Lincoln, Rounds looks good as the driver of the bus as well. To me, this is just another example of new republican humor and how to fleece taxpayers with a cartoon. See, this is about "bringing a smile to the face of people who see them". Nothing whatsoever about bringing tourist dollars to South Dakota, just smiles, knowing ones at that, because the joke is on us.