I dropped off a friend at the airport this morning, and on the way back, I noticed the latest promotional billboard for Hartford near the porn stores off I-91. "Chesney. Vedder. McCain. Madonna," it read. "Get Out More." At the bottom was the "New England's Rising Star" logo.
This is fantastic, for so many reasons. First, it completely misses the point. At least three of those four concerts — Kenny Chesney, Pearl Jam and Madonna — have drawn or will draw a minimum of 16,000 people each to Hartford (the fourth, which, in an SAT-level feat of deductive reasoning, I have concluded is Edwin McCain, takes place at the Webster Theatre, a smaller venue with a capacity of only 1,200).
So clearly drawing people to Hartford is no problem when there's a big concert. The trick is getting them to come here when there's NOT a blockbuster show.
Second, how did they pick Edwin McCain for inclusion on the billboard? If they were going to include a Webster show, why not Vixen? Or 3 Inches of Blood? Picture it: "Chesney. Vedder. 3 Inches of Blood. Madonna." What's not to love?
Third, it's going to take more than semi-clever billboards to promote Hartford. The center of popular culture in Connecticut is rapidly shifting from our fair capital to the southeast corner of the state, where the casinos are exerting ever more influence on entertainment — a lot of concerts that in years past would have played Hartford, or Wallingford, are stopping at the casinos now instead. That's a troubling trend for the long-term vitality of Hartford's entertainment scene, especially because the city has reached a point where its attempts at revival can go either way: successful resurrection or failed bureaucratic boondoggle costing taxpayers more than a billion dollars for nothing.
Get out more, indeed.
Hey, at least it's better than, "Come to Hartford. It's fun, I swear."
Basically begging people to come.
Posted by: John | June 15, 2006 at 09:54 AM
Maybe John McCain was reading from "Flags of My Ancestors" or whatever his book is called.
Eric responds: Yeah, maybe. but he wasn't.
Posted by: Josh | June 02, 2006 at 10:45 AM