Brand New Image

Recently, the Manitoba government unveiled its Spirited Energy campaign. It's an initiative involving television and billboard ads saying how great a place Manitoba is. Unfortunately, I think the money was not well spent at all.

The undertone of this idea is that everything is merely a commodity to be marketed. In other words, if someone doesn't want what you are trying to sell, it's because you haven't marketed it enough. The focus is on cosmetic appearances, without addressing any of the substance. People don't choose to live in places and form their opinions of them based on flashy ads and billboards. They do so based on such things as economic opportuinties, climate, social environment, and the list goes on. The proper thing to do to promote Manitoba would have been to address these issues and come up with solutions instead of running a PR campaign.