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Chicagoans to Wisconsin: Thanks but no thanks—we’ll take the train


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#1 CNJRoss

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Posted 22 February 2018 - 09:52 AM

Chicago Reader, 2/21/18:
 

Chicagoans to Wisconsin: Thanks but no thanks—we’ll take the train

 

CTA commuters weigh in on the ad campaign urging passengers to ditch the hassles of public transit and move to the Badger State

 

 

fob_transportation-cta_ads-1-900.jpg

 

 

The ads are on el platforms and 15 Brown Line cars. They're on social media, in downtown health clubs, and on beer coasters in local bars. A typical placard juxtaposes dejected-looking young straphangers with shiny, happy people drinking beer on a terrace above Madison's Lake Monona, playing Frisbee golf or competing in beach volleyball. The accompanying texts pose dilemmas such as "Rush hour or happy hour?," "An hour commute or an hour with friends?," and "Bump elbows or bump on the court?" The tagline? "Wisconsin: It's more you."

 

They're all part of a $1 million marketing campaign to entice Chicago millennials to move to the Badger State. The message is clear: the el's a drag, so move to Wisconsin, where you can drive everywhere instead.

 

Consider that a message direct from Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, a Republican whose anti-transit policies have included refusing $810 million in federal grants lined up by his predecessor for a new passenger rail line linking Milwaukee and Madison. The organization behind the $1 million ad campaign is the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, a public-private venture Walker created in 2011.  .  .  .

 

SNIP

 

Indeed, former Madison mayor Dave Cieslewicz recently wrote in the Isthmus, the city's free weekly, that the ad campaign seems "premised on the notion that millennials would rather spend time stuck in traffic on the Milwaukee freeway system or on the Madison Beltline than riding the el." He noted that nowadays about a quarter of U.S. 19-year-olds don't even have driver's licenses. "It apparently never occurred to the WEDC that there are people who actually would rather ride a train than drive a car."

 

More here.






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