Hasta La Creative!

So, “Charlotte’s got a lot,” huh? That’s what BooneOakley asserts in a tourism campaign for a city I’ve now learned is in North Carolina. (Having never been farther south than Teaneck, N.J., I had to waste six seconds on Google Maps to find out for sure.) The visual wordplay in the ads is appealing, but the slogan seems best suited for a declaration scrawled on a public phone booth or men’s-room wall. In our cellular age, do they still have phone booths anywhere? Or men’s rooms, for that matter? I don’t see either in the Charlotte ads, which cast the city as the Riviera of the New South, so I guess visitors will have to hit Raleigh or Durham to drop a dime or spend a penny. Which begs a question: Why so down on Raleigh, BooneOakley? It’s a question that may need to be addressed the next time state ad contracts come up for review. UPDATE: Check out some of the city’s earlier “Shhhhhharlotte” ads here.

—Posted by David Gianatasio