BLOG by zaiss

I have a passive interest in branding strategies that corporations use and the messages they convey to the audience. Originally, I had planned on exploring marketing and its overlap with HCI while at CMU. But alas, things changed, and I got sidetracked.

Speaking of getting sidetracked, let’s hurry on to the topic at hand before it happens again. I’ve lived in Pittsburgh for almost a year now, and I’m starting to get a good idea of the image they portray to residents and visitors alike. A few months back my car registration expired. I decided to renew in Pennsylvania since it is about $100 cheaper (even after the mandatory car inspection) than registering in Nebraska. So I went for it.

It has always puzzled me that some state governments decided to put their official website on their license plates. Who do they think reads them? If I’m close enough to read the website on your license plate, I’ve probably rear-ended you. Plus, it seems as though you can access any official state website via www.state.[state abbreviation].us or www.[state name].gov. Plus, there’s always Google. But maybe I’m missing something.

Like other states, Pennsylvania has traditionally had their state website on their license plates. But I was intrigued to find that my license plate had visitpa.com on the bottom. They knew I was from Nebraska - was there a rule that people from other states got tourism plates? Did they expect me to go home and drive around my home state so that others would see my license plate and suddenly be stricken with the need to visit Pennsylvania?

It turns out that I wasn’t being singled out (shocking, I know). The visitpa.com plate was just the newest version of the Pennsylvania license plate.

Now, that seems a little odd to me. True, Pennsylvania was the 4th-most-popular travel destination in 2003. True, the outlook from 2004 was quite favorable. But how much of that tourism capital is really coming from within Pennsylvania? When I’m driving around Pittsburgh, am I supposed to see other “visitpa.com” license plates and be stricken with the need to visit the state that I already reside in?

But, OK - let’s operate under the assumption that these license plates somehow encourage non-Pennsylvanians to visit Pennsylvania. Let’s also say that half of these people decide to fly in, and they fly in to Pittsburgh. What would they see on their way out of the terminal? Multiple ads for Yesterday’s Airport of Tomorrow exhibit (um, would that be… today’s airport?) and a big honkin ad for Heinz ketchup.

I think airport advertising can be a good way to show what a city is all about to people who may not be familiar with it. The San Francisco airport has a tram that goes around the various parking areas and to the terminal. On some of the storage buildings, there are giant ads for handheld palm devices. That tells me that San Francisco is all about state-of-the-art, forward thinking technology. Omaha’s airport has a number of ads about unique commerce opportunities to be found in the city. Surely Pittsburgh has more to offer than… ketchup.

In fact, they do. As you proceed down the escalator to the train to baggage claim, you discover another large ad… for a hair salon. This just in - mass exodus of Americans to Pittsburgh to get their hair cut. How does that make sense? While I could see this ad potentially being effective for returning residents, a haircut is by far the last thing on my mind when I’m returning home from a trip. I’m desperately trying to remember where I parked my car so I don’t spend 30 minutes wandering around the parking lot in the rain looking for it (yes, that happened last month. -sigh-).

So won’t you please come visit me in Pittsburgh? We have fabulous things to do, like eat ketchup… get haircuts… and travel to other places in Pennsylvania. But truly — what else is there in life?