Wednesday, June 22, 2011

"Best Outdoor Town"? Not Even in the Running

Oh woe, oh woe -- Outside Magazine is conducting an on-line poll to determine the "best outdoor town ever," and Bend, Oregon ("Recreation Paradise! Healthy Outdoor Lifestyle! 300 Days of Sunshine!") didn't even make the Top Ten list.

Adding to the shame, two Oregon cities did make the Top Ten -- Ashland and Portland. (Portland, seriously? Soggy, dismal, dreary Portland?)

Of course, this news should not be dismaying to anybody who knows how magazines go about compiling these ratings. It works something like this:

1. Ad department comes up with an idea for a Top Ten list -- top ten cities for mountain biking, top ten cities for skiing, top ten cities for backyard goat farming, whatever.

2. Ad salespersons get their marching orders, start calling up prospective advertisers in the cities on the list and making their pitch: "We're coming out with our Top Ten Cities for Catching Chlamydia in September, and (Bend, Portland, Ashland, Sioux Falls, etc.) is in the running! I'm sure you'll want to be part of this fantastic advertising opportunity!"

3. Cities where the advertisers cough up sufficient bucks stay on the list; cities where they don't get bumped in favor of ones where they do.

4. Editorial staff cranks out puff pieces on each of the "winning" cities, making sure to regurgitate all the bullshit Chamber of Commerce talking points.

Which means, essentially, that all of these Top Ten lists are as phony as a $3 bill -- or as Bend's "300 Days of Sunshine."

5 comments:

Marshall_Will said...

"We're coming out with our Top Ten Cities for Catching Chlamydia in September,"

Ewwww! Thanks for the valuable insight Blackdog, we always had our suspicions, but were never sure of the mechanics as to how those 'lists' are put together.

Mind you, I hold no grudge, this is America, and this is 'how' our cr@p works? Done my share of promoting over the years.

But it certainly is incumbent upon the reader ( and adv. mark ) to do their share of due dilligence! And this is why nearly every article I read is thru the eyes of a BLOG!

Like-minded, passionate people that would rather cover, Bend, the stock market, technology, ( housing bubble ) or politics than SLEEP! Like a good friend of mine says; "Journalism is not a 'club'. It is an 'act' ". Don't let anyone tell you you can't be a good journalist! All you have to have is a passion for the TRUTH!"

This is why dead tree publications are drying up left and right. Virtually the only sector using their lip-service medium WAS real estate! When that died, I'm afraid the papers died WITH them! And that's the very formula we sought to expose as bubble bloggers.

Mike Royko is spinning in his GRAVE! Only recently has the MSM shown the faintest interest in truth.

Marshall_Will said...

Now that we're at the point of no return* in slavaging the month June, I was thinking up a few names for this particular year's stinker?

June-lite

June Bashful

June Interrupted

June-less

June The Disappointing

Please feel free to add!

*It would have to Avg. 114 Deg. and be sunny 24 hrs. a day to reach break even. Which isn't gonna' happen.

H. Bruce Miller said...

"June Was Suckin' Out All Over"

Marshall_Will said...

June Wedding ( Ever Mournful )

June Bliss; DENIED!

F@cking 'June'? Beach Body can WAIT!

June Repo

June? ( JK! )

June... On ICE!

Marshall_Will said...

June... We hardly KNEW ya'!