Lonely Planet blog

The USA’s least-visited state, North Dakota raised eyebrows recently, with a ‘flirty’ tourism ad ‘aimed at Canadians’ that suggested Fargo nightlife could lead to ‘legendary’ status in amorous matters del noche. The shot, one of 10 new ads, showed three women stopping on a Fargo sidewalk to chat with two guys — drinking beer! — with the caption: ‘Drinks, dinner, decisions. Arrive a guest. Leave a legend.’ Wink-wink, nudge-nudge, know-what-I-mean?

After some viewers found it ‘sickening,’ North Dakota Tourism took down the ad from its Facebook account — but savvy collectors can still find it in the North Dakota 2012 visitors guide.

Though the effect of tourism slogans remains questionable — and 15 of 50 states go without slogans altogether — I thought it was worth taking a look at the five most-suggestive state tourism slogans.

1. Mississippi: ‘Find your true south’
Indeed. Putting the X back in Biloxi, are we?

2. Nebraska: ‘Possibilities… endless’
Whether you go to Valentine or not.

3. Maine: ‘There’s more to Maine’
The ‘more’ is underlined on Maine’s site. Subtlety gets you nowhere in the northeastern tip of the US.

4. North Dakota: ‘Legendary’
We will never think of ‘legend,’ or North Dakota, the same way again.

5. Virginia: ‘Virginia is for lovers’
The state slogan since 1969, it now feels more PG than the others.

Honorable mentions: Massachusetts (‘It’s all here’), Connecticut (‘Connecticut’) and Indiana (‘Restart your engines’).

Hide 2 comments

1. February 4, 2012 akgirl40 Report this comment

   What – no votes for Alaska?? Big Wild Life – doesn’t that have all sorts of connotations?

2. February 7, 2012 farouk91 Report this comment

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