Jackson Free Press

There's an article in yesterday's Times about an advertising campaign to show Mississippi as not last in everything. Though the quotes are kind of balanced, I still feel like it's making fun of Mississippi a bit too much, makes it seem like our only hope is advertising to make people like us. Any comments?

Previous Comments

ID

108387

Comment

Hi Casey, I don't think that the article pokes fun about Mississippi. It rasises the question of what is needed: PR or structural change. I think that both are needed - and it sounds like the advertising is probably directed mostly toward schoolchildren in Mississippi. And if kids see a poster listing John Grisham and get excited about reading and writing, that is a good thing. And, it doesn't sound like the campaign is intended to deny problems that do exist or work against efforts at structural improvements. Having never been in Mississippi, perhaps I can illustrate with an example from Bosnia. After the war in Bosnia, a PR campaign was started with the motto "Tolerance, lets drink coffee!" (Bosnians are famous for their Turkish coffee.) Bosnia is still one of the poorest places in Europe and has a long way to go, but my heart is warmed when I see promotional videos like this one that was recently launched to promote tourism: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rinQSOVUvrU Showing the beauty of Bosnia does not make the country immediately richer or the bring the different ethnic groups closer together, but it does serve as a reminder that there is more to the place than what was in the headlines for a long time. Perhaps in both cases, a little good PR can energize people and create new possibilities.

Author

RW

Date

2006-11-08T10:15:28-06:00

ID

108388

Comment

Well, that campaign deserves ridicule. I think the folks behind it are well-meaning, but it's not much better than "Only Positive Mississippi Spoken Here."

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2006-11-08T14:14:06-06:00

ID

108389

Comment

And RW, the "good PR" is going to become because we *show* the world how much we've changed, not because we *tell* them using acceptable, whitewashed examples that make people feel good. And the monster truck thing is ridiculous. There are people here who drive monster trucks; how much credibility do we build saying they're aren't. Besides—so what? It's what we do, how we educate our children, the symbols we choose to put in our state flag, the politicians we elect, the level of dialogue we show to the world that faces problems (and fixes them) rather than denying them that we get us the respect of "outsiders." Personally, I'd settle for more considence and self-respect inside the state—and this campaign sends a paranoid, defensive, sugurcoated message. And it's sad that the people doing it don't get that. Unfortunately, that is part of the problem. The campaign embarasses me as a proud Mississippian who is working hard to help change our state for the better. The tone of denial certainly DOES NOT speak for all of us.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2006-11-08T14:29:35-06:00

ID

108390

Comment

Show not tell, right Donna? The age-old adage. That's why I want to do stories ABOUT good things in Mississippi, not about people saying there is good.

Author

casey

Date

2006-11-08T14:47:50-06:00

ID

108391

Comment

Right. And SHOW that we're not still racist, don't do ad campaigns about it. Also, showing people that we are greater now than in our past means not turning away from problems that need to be SHOWN as well, or fixed, or investigated. Puffery is puffery, no matter how you pretty it up. True honesty takes a bit more effort. Did I mention that we do have monster trucks? And that's nothing to be ashamed of.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2006-11-08T15:03:30-06:00

ID

108392

Comment

I really can't blame people outside of Mississippi for having stereotypes when the majority of people that are "sent out" to represent us are the epitome of "northern thoughts." I love Mississippi wholeheartedly but after going to other states to perform (spoken word, singing), I always get the same stereotypical questions. "Do you ever 'run into' Ku Klux Klan members?" "Do you go to Jackson State?" (former Mississippi College student, by the way). It never fails. Yes, it is partial ignorance but the other half belongs to the state's representatives. Not all Mississippians have strong southern drawls in their dialect. Not all Mississippians believe in the Confederate Flag. Not all Mississippians worship John Deere. They see Trent Lott, Haley Barbour, and "Hanging Glory" and it represents everything they already assume.

Author

yaya

Date

2006-11-09T02:06:56-06:00

ID

108393

Comment

I find the pro-Mississippi ad campaign a little weird, too. "Yes, we can read; a few of us can even write," and then a list of authors, almost all of them white and dead. "Yes, we wear shoes; a few of us even wear cleats" is an awkward segue into football heroes, and the truth is that actually I am sitting here barefoot in my recliner and I don't see anything wrong with that. There was a weird thread on one national liberal religious discussion listserv I used to belong to about whether it was sanitary to cook potluck food while barefoot, since that's technically a violation of restaurant regulations. Uhm, duh? Unless you're stirring the gravy with your feet, I don't really see how it friggin' matters. The no-barefoot clause is so that chefs don't get their feet shredded and munged with whatever gets dropped on the floor; it has nothing to do with the food being sanitary or unsanitary. But it ultimately tied, as so many things do, into class bias, which otherwise liberal people sometimes buy into whole hog. But the worst Mississippi poster was "No black, no white, just the blues." Sorry, but when 80 percent of black residents vote against a flag and only a tiny minority of white voters see that as a sign that it needs to be changed, "No black, no white, just the blues" is just plain false advertising. I suppose my main problem is that it's an ad campaign where every ad essentially begins "You may think we're a bunch of idiots, BUT...," which doesn't strike me as a very effective way to improve Mississippi's image. It would be kind of like if GLAAD did a poster saying "No, we're not child molesters. Some of us are even monogamous," or the NAACP did a poster saying "No, we're not 'thugs' and 'welfare queens.' Some of us are even Republicans," or a Muslim special interest group did a poster saying "No, we're not suicide bombers. Some of us are even veterans." You just don't start off a campaign by validating somebody's prejudices and then feebly arguing with them. That's bad psychology, among other things. Cheers, TH

Author

Tom Head

Date

2006-11-09T03:22:37-06:00

ID

108394

Comment

And yaya, agreed. As long as the public faces of this state are Haley Barbour, Trent Lott, and the Stars n' Bars, Mississippi will always have a negative image. That's not a marketing problem; that's a reality problem. Our product is faulty. "No black, no white, just the blues" for Mississippi is like "100% fat free" for a Big Mac; it's not just false, it's audaciously false. Cheers, TH

Author

Tom Head

Date

2006-11-09T03:25:19-06:00

ID

108395

Comment

Why are we wasting money on this anyway? They won't believe.

Author

Ironghost

Date

2006-11-09T08:18:47-06:00

ID

108396

Comment

I agree with everything you said, Tom. It's a naive campaign that's rather embarassing. I'm sure they didn't mean it to be, though. Again, *show* them what we're like; don't come up with B.S. and trite campaign slogans that just make us sound like a bunch of paranoids. And make the damn thing more diverse, if you're going to do it—or you lose people right there.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2006-11-09T14:04:06-06:00

ID

108397

Comment

Well, just direct them to this site. That alone will blow minds. Also, remind them that over the last two generations ago, both Georgia and Texas went from "redneck hick states" to places where people from all over the world are moving to.

Author

Philip

Date

2006-11-10T07:48:35-06:00

ID

108398

Comment

Hi Philip, I think you wanted to send a link ... didn't seem to work. I happily concede that the PR campaign in this case could well hit the wrong note and insult many people in the process. However, there is one thing that the campaign, plus the Times article, plus Casey's response to it accomplished. It got a dialogue started. And, from what I have seen here, it is quite an interesting one at that. It kind of makes me want to swing by for a visit some day!

Author

RW

Date

2006-11-10T08:32:16-06:00

ID

108399

Comment

I've give you that, RW. Dialogue is good, even when it comes from an unfortunate place. The campaign still embarrasses me as a Mississippian, though.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2006-11-10T12:28:06-06:00

ID

108400

Comment

Y'all, in the immortal words of Shakespeare, "doth protest too much." There's an advertising axiom that says "perception is everything." Mississppi has a perception problem, inside and out, when our school children are embarrassed to say where they're from. Are our citizens being taught Mississippi pride -- what's good about Mississippi? Where? If we can't begin to poke fun at ourselves, our checkered past and the way others perceive us, we ARE indeed defensive and paranoid. Yes, Mississippi has changed in the last several decades, but the perception is still one of shame, ignorance and poverty. And there's still some truth to the perception, whether we'd like to admit it or not. I hate it too when MS is the butt of jokes and ridicule, but until we get up on our hind legs to make some highly visible constructive changes (like getting rid of idiots like Lott and Barbour) the perception sticks. Pride in Mississippi has to start in Mississippi. We can't just take the reality and the perception, sweep them under the rug and not talk about them, while expecting the rest of the world to just concentrate on what's good here. We've got to admit that there's a smell left after the shit's gone, and work really, really hard to clear the air. Otherwise we're just a bunch of ineffective, pollyannish do-gooders. If Cirlot is "painting the pigs toenails" in an effort to raise consciousness about Mississippi, I, for one, applaud them for at least doing SOMETHING -- even if they let some "secrets" out about how we're perceived, i.e. admitting there's still a pig under the polish -- even if it's not perfect. What good does it do to simply criticize without having a better plan? Georgia and Texas paid big bucks to ad and P.R. agencies to correct their perceived images. Cirlot is doing it out of their own pockets. It's in their interest, and Mississippi's, to be wide open to some community involvement to make the campaign better and more even handed.

Author

Ronni_Mott

Date

2006-11-10T12:29:53-06:00

ID

108401

Comment

There is a better plan, and many Mississippians are enacting it every single day. The better plan is to SHOW what we're about, not to send out the exact same defensive messages that get us painted this way in the first place. So, no one is "simply criticizing"—epecially here. That's silly to say. For instance, Casey Parks alone is doing more to change perceptions about this state than this campaign will ever think about doing. I told the gentlemen who runs Cirlot months ago about some of my problems with the campaign and its inclusiveness. It doesn't seem to have changed much. Which is fine; it doesn't have to. But if they're not reaching a proud Mississippian such as myself with it, I PROMISE you that it won't hit its mark in the way they intend. The tone of the Times piece is proof. (Not that I approve of the way the Times tends to cover the South—but I'm not out there running a public-relations campaign to get them all to change.)

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2006-11-10T12:38:51-06:00

ID

108402

Comment

Ladd- You are definitely right about Casey Parks! No one would ever guess that she's one of Mississippi's finest. What a great chick to represent the Sip!

Author

yaya

Date

2006-11-13T02:15:01-06:00