This video touting the charms of the city of Dallas made the rounds this week.
I actually find all of the dorky dancing to be somewhat charming. You can’t do that sort of thing and take yourself too seriously. Having said that, the “One more thing” schtick got old real fast. And is it just me, or does anyone else think that it’s somehow fitting that Vanilla Ice lives in the Big D? There’s something just right about that.
Be all that as it may, I agree with Tom. Houston’s video is much cooler.
Better music, and no dancing that would make a wedding reception attendee cringe. What do you think?
Ok, on an actual argument of Houston vs. Dallas; I’m going with Dallas. I live in two cities; Friendswood (Houston) and Denton (Dallas). Houston wins at Tex-Mex, Rodeo, and Art/Museum culture. Dallas wins at there big things to do. I’m sorry, but Houston is just . . . boring. Dallas has better music, better football (Houston has better Basketball), better food (in general), architecture, and transportation.
Then again I prefer Fort Worth (night life, museum culture, small enough to get around and see it all) and Austin (music, food, political history, walkability, but unaffordable to live in) over either.
I don’t know enough to comment on San Antonio.
What’s most striking about the somewhat cringe-worthy Dallas video is that by the standards of CVB promotional videos it’s actually quite good. A lot of money gets spent to make these rah-rah pieces and they are almost uniformly terrible; let’s face it, if you have to have people standing around saying “We have good restaurants!” and “You can play golf here!” then you look like you’re fighting an existing impression that your city is a big rathole. (Has there ever been a video of this kind that didn’t say that there was lots of great food?)
I’m kind of amazed by the Houston video, because it’s so different from most of those pieces, and in my opinion (as a marketer) really smart: people planning events and picking host cities (which is who these are really aimed at) already know about the basics; the Houston video just tries to create a feeling that this is a cool place, and does it really well, by just shutting up and showing things, and not only pretty things. Hats off to the folks who produced it.
As for Houston vs Dallas – let’s face it, for the people coming to either city for three days for the International Association of Widget Polishers meeting, either city will provide an excellent experience. As will almost any big city. For those picking a place to live, they both have lots to offer, and it’s more a matter of which city’s attitudes and particular details match a person’s preferences. (You don’t like to buy a car ever 17 minutes and iron creases in your jeans? Pick Houston.)
Trowaman, I don’t see how anybody can be bored in city as big as Houston OR Dallas. As Zelda Fitzgerald said, “[S]he refused to be bored chiefly because she wasn’t boring.”
>>I live in two cities; Friendswood (Houston) and Denton (Dallas)
I’d say both of those cities probably meet my definition of boring, and neither one of them is really representative of Houston / Dallas. Try living in Montrose or something and then tell us how boring Houston is. Otherwise seems like you are just comparing suburbs if not exurbs.
As for the videos, the Dallas places look cool – gotta say I’ve never really been to Dallas – why go there? Isn’t it VERY similar to Houston? If I’m going to go somewhere, I’d rather go to San Antonio, Austin, New Orleans, or out of the region. At some point I’ll have to go just to check out Fort Worth and some of the museums.
Houston video is much cooler at any rate. Like the music they chose. I couldn’t make it through the entire Dallas video.