Somewhere on the back streets of the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston, there's a Volkswagen wearing the words, "RHODE ISLAND IS THE UNIVERSE," on its rear windshield. My friend John Murphy, who previously owned the car, spliced together two UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND decals to make the motto, and the current owner liked it enough to leave it there. During the past seven years of travel and journalism, I've been amazed at how often John's Zen-like axiom has proven true.
Take the saga of Pawtucket-born Mr. Potato Head, recently snagged in a drug bust in Australia and caught in an illicit relationship with an octopus in England. The official spokespud of Rhode Island (Hasbro's words, not mine), member of the Toy Hall of Fame and star sidekick of the Toy Story movies, Mr. Potato Head is no stranger to controversy.
In 2000, a tourism decision to make Mr. Potato Head the "official family-travel ambassador" by scattering dozens of the 6-foot Potato Heads into communities throughout Rhode Island backfired when the project suffered local and international ridicule and criticism, with many of the statues repeatedly vandalized. Communities didn't know how to get rid of the things. Hometown Pawtucket tried to re-gift its own Mr. Potato Head, valued at $8,700, to Belper, England, but only succeeded in enraging the locals. Rhode Island tried a reclamation project a couple of years later, as Hasbro and the R.I. Community Food Bank teamed up for a good cause, giving vanity plate conscious Rhode Islanders a chance to "Help End Hunger" by purchasing a Mr. Potato Head license plate for the toy's 50th anniversary. Just a week ago, the most famous Rhode Island toy this side of G.I. Joe continued to make Mr. Potato headlines during the first round NBA playoff series between the Boston Celtics and Atlanta Hawks.
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2 comments:
I admit to having atrocious taste, but I think Rhode Island gave up too quickly on the quirky Spud campaign. Is it any worse than Chicago's cow art? (http://www.chicagotraveler.com/cowsonparade1.htm)
My favorite was Friar Potato Head, who sat outside the St. Francis Chapel in downtown Providence. On the feast of St. Francis, staff members would give the good Friar a Slinky Dog to bless. (http://www.backtobasicstoys.com/item/productid/5414)
As an unabashed fan of the Big Blue Bug and former ProJo reporter turned Channel 6 reporter Jim Hummel's pink flamingo yard exhibitions when he lived on County Road in Barrington, I'll be the first to admit that bad taste has its place. Chicago had the cows, Boston did celebrity cod, and Connecticut and Rhode Island teamed up a couple of years back on public art whales. When I first heard about the Potato Head campaign (in the pages of USA Today while on a bicycle trip from Key West to Maine), I was amused. But when I moved back here and lived through it, I have to admit - they did nothing for me. In retrospect, perhaps variations on a giant quahog in each of Rhody's 39 towns would've been a better way to satisfy the local art kitsch fix. Or little Buddy gnomes...
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