Nebraska's new brutal and honest tourism slogan is perfect

My father grew up in a Nebraska town that has 300 inhabitants and called Bruning. He graduated from a high school class of ten. When my parents first met in college, my mother came to visit her and turned around illegally on the city's main road. By the time she returned to my dad's childhood home, a worried neighbor had already alerted my grandmother there.

Unlike my father, my grandparents (who own a local fertilizer business), my uncle and my cousin still live there. When I was a kid, I remember that it was the kind of place where vending machines were closed on Sundays and seeing my grandparents generally involved driving a tractor and being pushed into a wheelbarrow across the cornfield in their backyard. The last time I was there, we had a dish called hamburger pizza from the local gas station, garnished with pickles.

My experiences in a small town may not be indicative of the state as a whole, but they highlight how Nebraska's new travel slogan is pretty good. On Wednesday, the state launched a new campaign that relies heavily on its flying-country reputation, simply saying, "Honestly, it's not for everyone."

The new campaign, which will take place in the spring of 2019 on "key markets outside the state", uses a bit of self-disparaging humor to attract a greater number of visitors to a regularly ranked state in the 50th rank lists that people want to visit, according to a press release. Some ads include slogans echoing common state-related phrases: "there is nothing to do here" and "famous for our flat and boring landscape" on images of people "by train to make a "or" float "in a cistern, and hikers crossing Toadstool Geologic Park. According to Omaha World HeraldThat's all the work of the advertising agency Vladimir Jones, who, to the dismay of some locals, is based in Colorado.

Nevertheless, people at the Nebraska Tourism Commission believe that advertisements appeal to people's sense of adventure and ultimately represent good Midwest values ​​of the state.

"The new brand platform is defined by honesty," said tourism director John Ricks in a press release. "The overall concept of honesty is rooted in a state of mind that values ​​transparency, purity and simplicity – a way of living the less obvious moments of life." We believe we have accomplished exactly that. "

Nevertheless, Twitter users have submitted their own opinions on advertisements, offering some other distinctive qualities that might be enough to bring tourism to the state:

Of course, Nebraska is more than the sum of its small town charm. It has an excellent zoo, a thriving arts and music scene and, given that the Huskers' Memorial Stadium has just celebrated its 364th consecutive sale, the most assertive sports fans, winners or losers.

But perhaps the best in Nebraska is the feeling that locals can not understand why fools would want to live elsewhere. And maybe that's a feeling that is worth traveling.

The author wears a Cornhusker hat.

Follow Lauren Messman on Twitter.