How does this grab you? “Aurora: Seriously. No, seriously. No, really.”
No? The city is in the market for a marketing campaign, and based on the tin-ear bombs a hired hand is pitching their way, Aurora officials will fall for anything. No, seriously.
This is actually a story almost as old as the city itself. It’s a story about Aurora’s image. It’s a story about things Aurora does to hurt its image. And it’s a story about swindlers who sell image.
First, a little history. If you’re new to these parts, you probably have no idea that for a very long time Aurora has been considered the armpit of the metro area. I could have tempered that, but softening the blow and telling city officials what they want to hear is the job of image consultants, not mine. Of course Aurora’s reputation for being a river of suck was inaccurate and unfair. Everybody knows that Commerce City, not Aurora, is the real armpit of the metro area.
Aurora got a bad rap for growing fast with a slew of three-story walk-ups that attracted people who like to move to and quickly move from three-story walk-ups. Somewhere along the way, Aurora got big, beige and bulgy. There were gang problems for a while. Not a lot, but enough to add to the specter of asphalt canyons, Buckingham Square Mall and little more than strip malls and Hardieboard housing in between. In reality, Aurora was just like suburbs to the south, west and north of Denver. The only real difference was Aurora was much bigger. More people meant that the things that people do to get on the 10 o’clock news happened more frequently. “Aurora man arrested for…” gave people the impression that a lot of Aurora men were gangsters, robbers, murderers and bowling naked. Yeah, that happened.
So as the city’s image spiraled in the 1980s and 1990s, city lawmakers did things like, well, nothing. They complained about bad headlines in Denver newspapers, noise at Stapleton International Airport and they told real-estate agents to quit telling people Aurora sucks.
Now, Aurora has built swank golf courses and lots of very swank homes filled with people who spend time on swank golf courses. The city throws around its considerable political weight and tells Denver politicians and businesses to suck it, when things like that need to be said.
Now it’s time for a serious mommy makeover for the aging girl. So they hired Adrenalin, a high-powered image and branding consultant that recommended the city consider a powerful image-meme like: “Aurora, it’s worth discovering.”
Barf. In the interest of frank honesty, that’s just stupid. In fact, it’s awful. It’s publicrelationese for, “we don’t suck that bad.”
If you’re wondering just who the brains are behind such a sad little synaptic backfire, it comes from the same people that proudly stand behind the stellar marketing campaigns for PPIR. No? No Pavlov’s Bell there? How could you not know that PPIR is the Pike’s Peak International Raceway? Never mind that it went bankrupt years ago. Andrenalin still touts that wild success on their website.
“Adrenalin helped Pikes Peak International Raceway clean up our brand and now keeps us on track (no pun intended) by assisting in all our marketing efforts. From creative to strategy to execution, PPIR relies on Adrenalin’s expertise,” Rob Johnson says in an on-line testimonial alongside other household names such as Chicago Fire, Gilco Sports, AEG sports and the floundering Denver Cutthroats.
“After months of research on what Aurora could do to brand itself as an attractive place for Millenials and developers, Adrenalin President Dan Price presented an 80-page branding guide called the “A Book” to Aurora City Council members at a study session Monday,” reporter Rachel Sapin wrote earlier this week. “A” is for “I love me some government contracts.”
It’s not a big surprise that a big-money operation like Adrenalin (Get it? Adrenalin. Their work will make your pulse race. Get it? Huh?) will take Aurora’s dough to come up with sure-fire winning campaigns like, “Think you know Aurora? Bet you don’t.”
Wince.
What I’ll bet is that Adrenalin doesn’t know Aurora is better than a “worth discovering” meme, and it’s more important than what this effort suggests. We deserve better. Want to get your adrenalin rush? It looks like Aurora is on the hook for $300,000 for these “gems.” Ack.
“Words are powerful,” Price said. “Used properly they can improve perceptions. Used improperly, they can tear down a city.”
That much he has right. His own company’s choices so far, however, appear to be pearls of Price’s pricey ominous prophecy. Keep looking.
Reach editor Dave Perry at 303-750-7555 or dperry@aurorasentinel.com
This is a pretty funny venture into sarcasm and I honestly did laugh out loud at the river of suck reference. However, I work in this city and live in the suburbs you reference. If you seriously think they are anything alike, you don’t spend time on Colfax … at all, or parts of the Iliff Corridor, Havana, shall I go on? To say that Aurora “had” a small gang problem for a little while back in the 1990’s – uh, do you ever actually GO OUTSIDE of your office?? I do agree with you that the proposed ad campaign does stink. And Southlands is a really lovely area except that buses bring burglars robbers and carjackers there from the less lovely parts of Aurora. There’s an app called crimereports. You might want to check it out. Have a lovely, safe day.
Aurora: Not Kansas.
Aurora: Windswept Prairie.
Aurora: Makes Denver Look great.
Whatever time you spent reading this article, you have wasted your time..
$300,000!?! Yet another consultancy to go with the $30k paid to the recruiter who came up with 4 Chief candidates with more baggage than Samsonite. Here’s a freebie: “Aurora, it starts with an A”
How’s this?: “Aurora, our gangs have almost all all fled to the North parts of the City.” Should be a hit on web presence and print media.