We admire an agency that’ll create a campaign, publish the fact they’ve done so, highlight the fact its city has the ugliest people and do it all without any client approval or charging a penny. Yup, Philadelphia’s Gyro Worldwide has embraced the fact its city was just named the ugliest city in America by Travel & Leisure Magazine readers.
Before Philadelphia was crowned the ugliest, John Waters, during an episode of John Favreau’s Dinner For Five, tried to get the mayor of the former ugliest city, Baltimore to embrace its hideousness and create a tourism campaign out of the fact. He reasoned the rest of the country would flock to Baltimore like paparazzi to Britney Spears’ cooch.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, for Baltimore, the Mayor didn’t run with Waters’ suggestion but Gyro hopes Philadelphia’s Mayor will. The agency has already created print ads with photos of Philly’s finest along with headlines such as “Please Don’t Feed the Animals,” ” Come Visit the Nation’s Only Citywide Freak Show!”,” “Everyday is Halloween in Philadelphia”,” Philly’s Even More Ugly When You Sleep Over” ” And “Come Visit Uglytown U.S.A!”
Gyro CEO Steven Grasse urges the rest of the country to come check out the ugliness for themselves, saying, “Come to Philadelphia for an ego boost. Even if you are kind of ugly yourself, you’ll feel really great after a weekend in Philly.”
