We now know who is going to be performing on New Year’s Eve - Maroon 5’s PJ Morton and Big Freedia will be on hand as the country watches the central time zone countdown to midnight. But it’s not about who is performing - it seems like the message around this controversy is just completely messed up.,
The fact of the matter is, when you're spending public money, you want to get the most leverage you can in order to put the city and state in the best possible light. Everyone knows ad campaigns are all about leverage to make sure you get the biggest bang for your buck. I've said all along, that was the smart way to approach spending this $500,000. The state has embraced Lauren Daigle for that purpose, that’s what they’re doing. This is not a slight to the city of New Orleans or local entertainers here - Lauren is a Louisiana native, she is a local.
If we’re going to start thinking so parochially that this is about “us versus them” depending on what part of the state you come from, we’ve lost sight of what we are trying to accomplish. There’s been a significant investment put into the advertising and promotional campaigns for the state of Louisiana, which in large part, highlights the city of New Orleans. I think it is very shortsighted for us to not recognize that that was what this was all about. I think it was also a missed opportunity when Lauren Daigle came down to meet with Cantrell, and they couldn’t act like grownups and resolve this issue to the benefit of New Orleans and Louisiana.
It doesn’t matter if it’s Big Freedia or PJ Morton, they’re both very successful, I’ve seen them both perform a number of times. I want to be entertained, I am not judgemental about any of these talents at all. But the fact that we would engage in a controversy that was so misplaced in its premise, from the very start, and then perpetuate that through … how many times have we heard the Mayor talk about her fair share? She’s getting her fair share of half a million tourism dollars to benefit the city, and she basically says no thank you?
Well, Mayor, now be proud, because you’re paying $500,000 and you have these two other entertainers, but no leverage to an overall marketing campaign, no tie to dollars being spent to promote your city… this is a failed policy, quite frankly. We’re seeing this over and over again. The fund that she hit was all about dismantling a tourism group partly funded by city dollars in order to go start a relatively new agency with dollars for culture. That’s the fund she went and raided, and they said that it was justified because these dollars were originally intended for tourism, until they were redirected and sent to this other agency.
So we’re yet again spending $500,000 on tourism-related matters without the benefit of the leverage. That was the whole motivation. I thought it was a smart strategy, and smart PR people will tell you the exact same thing. We spent city money, but the Mayor successfully bullied her point.
In an election year, these are the things you jot down as to whether or not your elected officials are competent in what they do. Do they recognize they aren’t the center of the universe and everything isn't about them? Sometimes it isn't about winning battles, it's about winning wars.
