Marketing Providence: The Buddy Brand Factor
Wednesday, July 02, 2014
The entrance of former Providence Mayor Vincent "Buddy" Cianci into the race for Mayor as expected has grabbed national -- and international -- attention for the pol known as much for his pasta sauce as his prison stint.
Business Insider called Cianci the "poster boy of political scandals". The Daily Beast dubbed him "America's favorite ex-con mayor."
SLIDES: See National Cianci Coverage BELOW
So what does the Buddy "brand factor" mean for Providence?
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST"If you think about moving here, you think twice," quipped Providence restaurateur Bob Burke of Pot au Feu. "If you're coming for a visit, however, you hop in the car, come in, and hope you can get a picture with Buddy. People flock to Chicago for the Al Capone stories. Here, they come for Buddy."
Providence Then and Now
Cianci, who during his previous administrations oversaw the construction of the city's new train station and skating center -- an inception of Waterfire -- helped make a Providence a tourist destination before being indicted on 27 federal criminal charges in 2001, ultimately being being convicted on a single charge of racketeering.
Now, Cianci is gunning for a third go at the post -- and all eyes are on Buddy. Jamie Fuller of the Washington Post dubbed Cianci the "PT Barnum of Providence." Rhode Island native and former Today show host Meredith Vieira told the Boston Herald that Buddy's run was "fabulous."
"I think that if you look back through the Doorley administration, you never had anyone who was a cheerleader for the city like Buddy was," said Burke. "There's probably a built-in negative with potential businesses looking to locate here, but someone looking to go to a city for a three day vacation isn't deterred by the reputation of a Mayor -- I'm betting Toronto is seeing a big influx of visitors, because political characters are attractive to people. Daly in Chicago..people are fascinated by old time political machines. And in Providence and Rhode Island, they are oily political machines."
"As a Providence business owner, my main concerns are the commercial tax rate, and bringing more taxpaying businesses into the city of Providence, and more tourists," Burke continued. "The tourist dollar is a fantastic dollar. They can't send their kids to our schools, they rarely make use of our prisons, if they get sick they go home to New Jersey, they can't collect unemployment, TDI, or a state pension -- all the things that cost our government big money."
Burke made a case for the tourism and hospitality industry -- and need for jobs in the sector that in his eyes, benefits from the "Buddy brand."
"We have no skills gap. We don't ask folks to go back to school, for a PhD, we'll hire you if you're skillless -- the only criteria we have is that you're willing to work hard and learn," said Burke. "That should be a hallelujah message for the people who need jobs the most in our economy. I think a populist mayor like Buddy understands -- or I hope understands -- that people need to be put to work that are already here, who are living on the first, second, third floors of tenements and need a job."
Using the Media - Or Vice Versa
Burke recalled a particular episode where Buddy used his position to promote Providence -- and used the media to promote Buddy.
"Back in the late [1990s], we had the great Providence-Boston restaurant challenge. I went to the CVB, went to Buddy, and they were all in. Cantankerous Buddy? He basically said, "Let's stick it to [then-Boston Mayor] Menino. 45 of us got on a tour bus, with a Boston police escort all the way up 93, and we went went up to Locke-Ober -- and we won," said Burke. "We haven't had anything like it since. We haven't had a Mayor understand media since Buddy."
So if, according to Burke, Buddy understands the media -- how does the media understand Buddy?
"In the Museum of American Political Scandals, if it ever gets built, there will be exhibits on Bill Clinton and Eliot Spitzer and Anthony Weiner and Larry “Wide Stance” Craig and Marion Barry," David Freelander at the Daily Beast wrote this week. "And there should be an entire wing dedicated to The Buddy Cianci Story,"
Related Slideshow: Buddy Cianci in the National Media
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