In Boston promotion, ads are 'wicked' funny

How do you get Bostonians to feel good about themselves?

This city, after all, is not a place infused with California la-la vibes or Midwestern cheer. This is the home of curses and critics and inferiority complexes -- where, even on a blissful summer day, everyone knows the next cold spell isn't too far off.

So when the Democratic National Convention host committee proposed an ad campaign to drum up local cheer, executives at local ad agency Arnold Worldwide knew unfettered boosterism wouldn't work. This blitz had to have enough inside jokes and irony to keep the locals happy, along with a fair amount of Red Sox references and ample use of the word "wicked."

This morning, the committee will launch the result: a multimedia campaign aimed at appealing both to locals and national reporters who will descend on town this month.

The theme is centered loosely on Boston's history of innovation, and the tone is a mix of swagger and sarcasm that only locals could fully appreciate. One TV ad focuses on a pattern of lines that look like a double-helix, as a voice-over says, "Mapping the human genome was easy." The camera pulls back to reveal a map of city streets, as the voice continues: "Mapping downtown? That's another story."

One print ad reads, "If they had a super bowl for science and technology, we'd win that, too." Another: "Of course, we're a forward-looking city. We've been saying 'Wait 'till next year' every year since 1918."

The campaign was conceived last winter, convention leaders say, as part of a bid to get locals involved in a convention that most won't attend. Its goal is to draw area residents to "Celebrate Boston," a month of cultural events, scattered through the neighborhoods, that will start Sunday.

When Arnold executives proposed a message -- make it funny -- some organizers were surprised, said host committee member Chris Gabrieli. "We'd been thinking about the message in a very sincere, earnest, arguably pedantic mode," Gabrieli said.

Irony notwithstanding, organizers said the process had far fewer bumps than a lot of Boston roads. Arnold donated about $500,000 worth of time to devise the campaign, after another local agency, Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos Inc., did some pro-bono branding research. Local media donated space for free. The ads will appear on Internet sites and MBTA trains.

At Mayor Thomas M. Menino's request, former Celtics great Bill Russell agreed to record a radio spot that makes reference to Boston's racial history. When he played for a championship team, "there was very little else for minorities to celebrate in this predominantly white city," the script goes. "But Boston's come a long way since then."