(The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Strip clubs sponsor Minneapolis tourism brochure
Minneapolis visitors bureau says they don't produce the brochure, they just distribute it. Greenspring produces the brochure on contract with the bureau. Some 25,000 copies have been distributed around town.
January 30, 2018 at 4:56PM
The 2018 "Minneapolis Official Visitors Guide to the Twin Cities Area" features a silhouetted football player on the cover and 32 pages promoting Minnesota brands and tourist-friendly activities.
The glossy guide touts the Foshay Tower, Peanuts statues, St. Paul's Rice Park and the Minnesota Timberwolves among many Minnesota landmarks and amusement options.
It also features ads for strip clubs, the first of which appears across a page with "Cool facts about the Bold North." The ad for King of Diamonds in Inver Grove Heights reads "Hot Fun!" and shows a woman wearing a lacy white bra and holding a football aloft as if catching a pass.
The next page talks about skijoring, ice fishing and the St. Paul Winter Carnival. An ensuing page entitled, "Downtown Minneapolis Hot Spots" clubs Dream Girls and Déjà Vu have ads next to the Gay 90's and Sneaky Pete's.
Kristen Montag, senior public relations and communications manager for Meet Minneapolis, said the publication has been owned and produced by Greenspring media since 1996 and that the city convention bureau "and its channels" are under contract to distribute the guide.
She called the guide a "valuable resource full of information on our neighborhoods, our attractions and our area businesses."
But she said, "We fully acknowledge that these ads, while for legal, licensed businesses, detract from the positive messages about the city within the publication. We are disappointed that Greenspring included these advertisements and we have asked them to revisit their advertising policies in the future."
The 5,000-plus credentialed journalists in town for the Super Bowl will find the guide at the media center at the Mall of America.
Greenspring Media produces Minnesota Monthly and Midwest Home magazines. The Minneapolis-based company also hosts the Food and Wine Experience as well as the Luxury Home Tour.
The company didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.
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