Wisconsin Gets Its Money's Worth

The Wisconsin tourism billboard that's currently gracing Highway 280 along the Minneapolis-Saint Paul border may be one of the strangest I've ever seen.


Each time I see it from a distance, I think it's a red-haired Farrah Fawcett-type woman. But as I get closer, I realize once again that her head isn't covered in hair -- those are leaves.

Now, that makes me want to go visit Wisconsin, the place where leaves cling to your head.

The design has an odd '70s-retro vibe, too -- the typeface (Blippo), the woman's clothing, and even the Fawcettesque leaf-do. I wonder what that style has to do with autumn or Wisconsin, and who they think that appeals to.

The slogan, "Autumn Becomes You," is meaningless to potential visitors. It becomes me? In either sense of the phrase, it's not a winner.

I keep thinking of that poor woman and how more and more leaves will stick to her until she's buried, never to be seen again. Kind of like Robert De Niro's character in Brazil, except in his case it's paper instead of leaves:


Maybe that's the concept for the upcoming Wisconsin television spots.