“One More Thing,” The Contrarian View

Rarely have so many hands been wrung over a promotional video for a city. With its goofy dancing by everyone from Dean Fearing to Marty B. and appearances by the likes of Pat Green and Vanilla Ice, the “One More Thing” piece shown to meeting planners in town this week for their annual convention admittedly was pretty corny. But it was also sort of fun and, folks, we’re not talking cancer research here.

According to Phillip Jones, head of the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau, the “industrial video” was produced by the Freeman Co. (its Donald Freeman Jr. is the current DCVB chair), and was targeted strictly toward members of the meetings profession. “We’re known as a business destination, but who wants to come to a boring business town?” Jones says. “The video shows we’re fun, that we can make fun of ourselves. It shows the city has a sense of humor.”

Jones added that at least a dozen attendees had told him the goofy-dancing video was “the best” they’d seen. So we buttonholed one, Danielle L. Urbina, meetings manager for the American Society of Plastic Surgeons in Arlington Heights, Ill., and asked her opinion. “I thought it was great, very creative,” Urbina said. “It’s great when you can get people to step outside their comfort zone and do something.”