Chicago’s unserious marketing efforts – Wirepoints

By: Mark Glennon*

Does anybody anywhere believe that Chicago is seeing “record-breaking economic growth”? Or that growth is fueling “a new and more equitable Chicago”?

That’s what Chicago’s marketing czar tells us. In Crain’s last week, Michael Fassnacht, president and CEO of World Business Chicago and chief marketing officer of the City of Chicago, wrote, “When future generations look back at this time in our city’s history, I am confident that our efforts driving record-breaking economic growth will be seen as the catalyst that fueled a new and more equitable Chicago.”

For sure, we should cut him some slack. Working for the city today is surely among the most unenvied assignments a marketing guy could have. But wouldn’t a more realistic approach be more effective?

Other efforts by the city sometimes have been cringeworthy:

• This month it was “Chicagwa,” canned water branded by the city, which was widely mocked.
• Earlier this year it was the city’s new marketing slogan, “Chicago Not In Chicago,” which was savaged even by the city’s own newspapers.
• Last year Fassnacht said his strategies for promoting the city included putting “Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s leadership during the crisis front and center.”
• This week, Lightfoot is in Texas continuing her effort to pitch companies to come to Chicago for its social justice and equity efforts. An earlier ad run in Texas papers to promote that effort said, “In Chicago, we believe in every person’s right to vote, protecting reproductive rights and science to fight COVID-19.”  As a former Texas resident myself, I’d say (how can I put this nicely and say it as they would?) that dog won’t hunt.

To be more realistic, only two strategies seem feasible.

The first is a factual but modest emphasis on what is still is working in Chicago. Fassnacht did some of that in his column. Tech and venture capital are indeed still humming, as he wrote. He cited a rather impressive list of companies that have chosen to expand or move into Chicago. He might have added that, surprisingly, apartment dwellers are returning to the city. But, jeez, don’t try to claim that the limited good news means the city is in the midst of “record-breaking economic growth.”

The second strategy is one that would be essential for success: List Chicago’s problems and state what the city is doing to fix them. If that could be done candidly and convincingly, the city might be seen to have bottomed out, making it a genuinely attractive destination.

That strategy, however, is not available, because nobody in power has ever laid out convincing plans for how Chicago will reverse its fiscal crisis, subdue crime, fix its schools and deal with its other problems.

That means any marketing effort can only piddle around the edges.

In other words, any effective marketing effort would require doing what the ruling class in Chicago and Illinois have shown no interest in doing. Here’s just a sample of what a good message would say:

In cooperation with the State of Illinois which has provided statutory authority, Chicago is implementing school choice and ridding itself of the Chicago Teachers Union; stripping Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and Chief Judge Tim Evans of their authority and vesting the duty to prosecute in another office that will do the job; reforming its pensions as authorized by a state constitutional amendment now being passed with bipartisan support; reforming its onerous collective bargaining rules for public employees and firing those who don’t produce; demanding, as a condition to any public assistance, that all who are able to work take one of the many jobs now in record over-supply.

Because that can’t be said any marketing effort is doomed.

One other thing about Fassnacht’s Crain’s column. He wrote, “It’s my hope that future historians will also look back and report how today’s business and civic leaders led new paths in economic development, incubating emerging and disruptive ecosystems—and leaning into the city’s core, competitive strengths….”

No, historians won’t say that. Most city business and civic leaders didn’t do squat. My colleague, Ted Dabrowski, and I have been talking to most of the key ones for years. For decades most preferred to get along and go along with the incompetence and corruption that brought Chicago to the brink of ruin.

There are a few monumental exceptions to that, people whom Ted and I also speak to, who are working behind the scenes to fight for reform in every way they can.

Only they will be favored by future historians. The rest will get the blame they deserve.

*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.