Gov. Mark Dayton, who rarely misses a chance to bash Minnesota's neighbors to the east, has branded a TV ad campaign for Wisconsin tourism as "one of the most idiotic things I've ever seen."
Gov. Dayton calls new Wisconsin tourism TV ads 'idiotic'
Gov. Mark Dayton, speaking to a tourism convention, ridiculed a series of TV ads for Wisconsin tourism inspired by the 1980s movie "Airplane," as "one of the most idiotic ads I've ever seen."
February 3, 2015 at 9:29PM
The ads play off the 1980 disaster movie spoof "Airplane." Actor Robert Hays and former NBA star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who appeared in the film, are reunited in the cockpit of an airplane that's flying low over scenes of Wisconsin tourism.
"I know! But Wisconsin is so beautiful in the summer!" Hays says in one ad, after a control tower warning that he's flying too low. He and Abdul-Jabbar proceed to trade memorable quips from the movie.
"It's one of the most idiotic ads I've ever seen in my life," Dayton said Tuesday, speaking at the Explore Minnesota Tourism Conference at St. Paul RiverCentre.
Dayton was speaking to the tourism industry group about the importance of TV advertising that promotes state tourism. He said he'd also seen recent tourism-based TV ads from both Dakotas and Montana, and found them all unmemorable.
Dayton proceeded to joke that Minnesota should pay Wisconsin to keep the ads on the air.
"I'll write that on a piece of infrastructure and send it to Gov. Walker," Dayton said, a reference to the Wisconsin Republican governor's publicized act of minor vandalism against Minnesotans. In November, Walker wrote "Go Packers" on a piece of Wisconsin steel bound for the new Minnesota Vikings stadium.
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