Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman shows his enthusiasm for the Nevada business climate in a commercial that one L.A. television station deemed anti-California and refused to air.
BETTER HAND: One of the controversial ads features a poker game in which California's business climate is competing against Nevada's in a game of five-card draw.
PEANUT: The case of a man crushed by a giant peanut is investigated in a commercial marketing Nevada's lower business nut, or operational costs, to Californians.
CLUE: Rising workers' compensation costs are among the clues left at the crime scene in the peanut ad.
This is one Oscar performance that won't play in L.A.
An ABC television affiliate in the City of Angels crushed nutty commercials starring Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman. The ads tout Nevada's business-friendly atmosphere and rip California for high taxes, workers' compensation costs and electricity rates.
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"KABC wouldn't run it because it was too anti-California, and they found it offensive," said Diane Pappas, media director for Shonkwiler Partners, the advertising agency that came up with the campaign for the Nevada Development Authority and placed
the spots with various California media outlets.
KABC representatives did not return phone calls for comment Thursday.
More than 22 newspapers and "every network from here to California," including other television stations in Los Angeles, did run the spots, which in addition to the mayor feature a large peanut representing California's supposedly higher costs.
The theme of Nevada Development Authority's campaign is: "Quit working for peanuts. Reduce your business nut -- come to Las Vegas." A nut is slang for the cost of launching or operating a business.
The first commercial depicts Goodman as a crime scene investigator handling the case of a man crushed by a giant peanut.
"The clues are all too clear," says Goodman's female CSI partner. "It looks like the big California tax nut killed another business."
Goodman peers through goggles at the man on the floor and in a less-than-Oscar-worthy performance replies: "Too bad he didn't call the Nevada Development Authority in Las Vegas. This would've never happened."
The second advertisement features a poker game in which California's business climate is competing against Nevada's.
In the game of five-card draw, Nevada gets three aces and the rare "no state personal income/corporate tax" card.
California's hand includes the "anti-business legislation" card.
"When it comes to business, Las Vegas is holding all the cards," an announcer says. "What do you say California?"
"That's it. I fold," the California poker player says.
Announcer: "Las Vegas keeps on winning. Right mayor?"
"Yes," says Goodman, with over-the-top enthusiasm, even for a man known for over-the-top enthusiasm. "I'm all in!"
The spots were set to run on KABC during the local newscast's commercial breaks, between Monday and Thursday, Pappas said.
During a news conference Thursday, a tickled-looking Goodman said the Nevada Development Authority board, on which he sits, was "talking to lawyers" about KABC's rejection of the ads.
Rufus Jeffris, a spokesman for the California Commission for Jobs and Economic Growth, said he had not seen the ads.
After listening to a description of the commercials and their nut theme, he deadpanned: "It sounds very highbrow."
He then added his own riff on the theme: "Any business in California would be nuts to leave. All things businesses need to thrive are here."
That is why the state has seen the creation of 500,000 jobs in the past year, he said.
The Nevada Development Authority took its message to Sacramento, San Francisco and San Diego last week, where about 20 people walked alongside an ad-wrapped double-decker bus handing out bags of peanuts and stress squeeze-balls adorned with the authority's logo.
On March 17, Goodman accompanied the entourage to Los Angeles.
The fun has come courtesy of an infusion of $5.5 million in marketing money from the state government over the next two fiscal years. The authority will spend about $1 million of it over the next seven months.
Goodman on Thursday compared the flap over the rejected ads to what happened when the NFL refused to air commercials for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority during the Super Bowl.
"It got worldwide attention," Goodman said.
Pappas also was not too concerned about the station's refusal to air the ads.
"It didn't bother me that much. We put the money elsewhere, and we'll get some free media out of it because they wouldn't run it," she said.
