Omaha ALL OVER national media lately

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Thu May 22, 2008 10:33 am

I have noticed this too Aaron. I'm in Louisville, KY finishing up work for the Obama campaign. My hotel provides the obligatory US Today. The front page story is American Airlines charging $15 for the first bag of checked luggage. They quote an Omaha executive who travels and supports this fee.

In general, living in DC...I see a lot of positive press on Omaha. And Aaron...I know you always like to know what others impressions are of Omaha....when I travel for the campaign....I always tell people that I am from Omaha....and their impressions of Omaha are always positive.

StreetsOfOmaha · Post by **StreetsOfOmaha** » Thu May 22, 2008 10:54 am

Oh, Rob! Happy to hear from you.

Glad to hear you're working with the campaign. Maybe it will bring you to Omaha

.

SRT84WD · Post by **SRT84WD** » Thu May 22, 2008 5:29 pm

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/h ... ml?eref=T1

SI ranked Central as the #10 athletic program in the country.

Swift · Post by **Swift** » Thu May 22, 2008 9:03 pm

Wow, that's pretty impressive! I know a lot of great athletes have come from Central (Gayle Sayers, Aman Green...) but #10 in the country!

gisbuxfan · Post by **gisbuxfan** » Thu May 22, 2008 10:13 pm

At least Nebraska has something to say bout their athletic programs...overall, not so great...

http://widgets.clearspring.com/cscallba ... iQiLXdgI2g

OmahaBen · Post by **OmahaBen** » Fri May 23, 2008 10:18 am

gisbuxfan wrote:At least Nebraska has something to say bout their athletic programs...overall, not so great...

http://widgets.clearspring.com/cscallba ... iQiLXdgI2g

That's a very poor metric, IMO. Looking solely at the ratio of AP/IB tests given as a percentage of graduating seniors. Talk about picking and choosing something relatively minor and making it the end all be all.

Swift · Post by **Swift** » Mon May 26, 2008 12:58 pm

And also, that is only Public Schools.

nebport5 · Post by **nebport5** » Mon May 26, 2008 2:27 pm

Not all of this national attention is positive...

Any one see the American Airlines commercial where a bunch of company employees are being sent all over the country(some to tropical paradises) and the boss says, "6 am to Omaha. Alright, who's taking one for the team?"

almighty_tuna · Post by **almighty_tuna** » Mon May 26, 2008 2:38 pm

Yeah, like, back in October! ;)

http://eomahaforums.com/phpBB/viewtopic ... n+airlines

nebport5 · Post by **nebport5** » Mon May 26, 2008 3:40 pm

oops...I guess I don't watch "enough" TV.

almighty_tuna · Post by **almighty_tuna** » Mon May 26, 2008 6:51 pm

clearly. now get off the internets and back on that couch - you have a lot of catching up to do.

Coyote · Post by **Coyote** » Mon May 26, 2008 10:24 pm

Well - we are not helping much:

'Dude, d'you see Nebraska's tourist ad?'

PAUL HAMMEL WORLD-HERALD BUREAU wrote:The adventures of "Ben & Riley," which debuted a month ago, are an edgy effort by the state tourism division to capture the imagination — and the travel dollar — of younger people who surf YouTube and other Web sites for entertainment and information.

Golf

[youtube][/youtube]

Raft

[youtube][/youtube]

Bird

[youtube][/youtube]

Complaints can be filed here: http://www.SeeNebraska.org

almighty_tuna · Post by **almighty_tuna** » Mon May 26, 2008 11:30 pm

I can appreciate where they were going with it, glad they didn't take their two minutes and scream "OMG THE HUSKERS PLAY HERE" and it certainly beats "Omaha: Rare, well done". However, they're targeting a younger demographic but aren't displaying anywhere that could even brag about having wireless internet, not to mention the guy who "took his whole family canoeing down the Niobrara" screams 'once you get old, visit our rivers with your kids, because we have nothing here that actually relates to people younger than 30'.

As a side note, while I watched those videos, especially the 3rd, I could've sworn I recognized those offices and hallways in the scenes. I'm willing to bet a round of beers that those segments were filmed by Snitily Carr in their own offices in Lincoln; 301 S. 68th St Place to be exact. They bought a few floors in the east building of Gallup's old campus in Lincoln before we made the move. I'd also be willing to bet that the restaurant scene in the 3rd clip is at the Taco Inn on 70th behind the Hy-Vee.

nebport5 · Post by **nebport5** » Mon May 26, 2008 11:45 pm

:barf: :lafcry:

StreetsOfOmaha · Post by **StreetsOfOmaha** » Tue May 27, 2008 8:42 am

You know, I was skeptical, but I don't mind them. They're cheesy, but catchy... I chuckled a couple times.

It's reminiscent of "The Office".... (yeah, I compared it to The Office....)

I hope they continue the "series" and explore some of the other touristic options... Zoo, CWS, Omaha nightlife, whatever...

thenewguy · Post by **thenewguy** » Tue May 27, 2008 9:33 am

StreetsOfOmaha wrote:You know, I was skeptical, but I don't mind them. They're cheesy, but catchy... I chuckled a couple times.

It's reminiscent of "The Office".... (yeah, I compared it to The Office....)

I hope they continue the "series" and explore some of the other touristic options... Zoo, CWS, Omaha nightlife, whatever...

While those of us around here who live in or around Omaha would appreciate that a great deal, i don't see it happening... I don't know why (actually, i do know why, but i still don't understand it) they always avoid the city-scape when promoting Nebraska. Example: in the ending parts of the videos, they show the obligatory sweep of western Nebraska, bull riding, rivers, etc, and avoided Omaha's skyline or any of the aforementioned examples you gave. It was the same thing with American Idol. They showed "Omaha" as being corn fields and gravel roads, when in reality there isn't a cornfield in Omaha until you get about 25 minutes or so from the river on the Nebraska side. I wish that the tourism board wouldn't play into the image that people already have, or would at least include other parts (Omaha) like they did with the rafting, and non-farming areas of the state (Scottsbluff, etc). Maybe they think that people from say Chicago or Miami or wherever would go, "oh, downtown? Nightlife? We have that here...but we don't have the "wilderness" like Nebraska does." I don't know, but that's what it looks like...even though i'd love to see them include at least some part of the biggest concentration of the Nebraska population (Omaha) as a contributor to tourism dollars for the state.

StreetsOfOmaha · Post by **StreetsOfOmaha** » Tue May 27, 2008 1:33 pm

I feel ya and totally agree. State tourism has always tended towards the "wilderness/rural" theme, which is COOL and GREAT to promote that, but that's not the whole picture.

Yeah, someone from Chicago, et all would probably be more interested in the natural/open-spaces aspects of Nebraska, but many people in the REGION, even nationally, could DEFINITELY be interested in Omaha's big city offerings if they were planning a Nebraska vacation, in addition to the natural/rural aspect.

DTO Luv · Post by **DTO Luv** » Tue May 27, 2008 9:58 pm

I just got back from NYC and I still heard about Omaha quite a bit.

When I was on the plane leaving I was sitting next to a young guy in town for an interview with HDR. He was talking on his phone to his friend about Omaha and it was very positive. This is paraphrasing but the gist of it.

"I was kind of worried about coming to Omaha but the guy here was really talking it up and drove me around for about an hour showing me around. It's really nice. Their Downtown is actually cool as sh!t."

He then went on to tell his friend about how surprised he was that Omaha was "actually a real nice city". I was of course proud.

When I was on the plane one of the in-flight magazines had a small piece about art in the Joslyn.

When I was actually in NYC one of the local news channels showed a graphic map of the tornado in Iowa over the weekend but instead of Des Moines it had Omaha listed on the small part of NE that showed.

In talking to people in NYC and telling them where I was from I got many different responses. (I only said Omaha, not Omaha, Nebraska unless they really had no clue where it was.)

-First all no one I talked to had even heard of the CWS.

-Most people knew it was in Nebraska but figured it was a city like any place else.

- I talked with one guy who was actually just here for the Berkshire convention and he said he liked Omaha.

- In the more "alternative" parts of NYC most of the people were shocked to hear that we had gay people here and that people were ok with it.

This is a much better improvement from the last time I went out east and someone asked me if I had a horse upon me telling them I lived in Omaha.

StreetsOfOmaha · Post by **StreetsOfOmaha** » Tue May 27, 2008 11:53 pm

That all sounds fantastic, D'Shawn. Thanks for telling. I look forward to the onslaught of NYC photos to come.

almighty_tuna · Post by **almighty_tuna** » Thu May 29, 2008 10:55 am

almighty_tuna wrote:As a side note, while I watched those videos, especially the 3rd, I could've sworn I recognized those offices and hallways in the scenes. I'm willing to bet a round of beers that those segments were filmed by Snitily Carr in their own offices in Lincoln; 301 S. 68th St Place to be exact. They bought a few floors in the east building of Gallup's old campus in Lincoln before we made the move. I'd also be willing to bet that the restaurant scene in the 3rd clip is at the Taco Inn on 70th behind the Hy-Vee.

Ok, so I couldn't take the suspense and called Snitily Carr. They did film this in the old Gallup office in Lincoln, however that was not the Taco Inn.

joeglow · Post by **joeglow** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 8:52 pm

DTO Luv wrote:
-First all no one I talked to had even heard of the CWS.

-I just got back from Chicago and found a similar reaction as I was talking about baseball. And to be honest, the few people who were aware of it were upset it was moving from Rosenblatt.

And there are gay people in Omaha?????

Seriously, I did have a guy ask me if we had black people here.

DTO Luv · Post by **DTO Luv** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 9:47 am

When I was in NYC at the gay bars people were just fascinated that there were gay people in Nebraska. There are more then I think people are aware of.

huskerJay · Post by **huskerJay** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 11:54 am

joeglow wrote:
DTO Luv wrote:
-First all no one I talked to had even heard of the CWS.

-I just got back from Chicago and found a similar reaction as I was talking about baseball. And to be honest, the few people who were aware of it were upset it was moving from Rosenblatt.

And there are gay people in Omaha?????

Seriously, I did have a guy ask me if we had black people here.

Did you say "no, that's just the rest of Nebraska that has no diversity?" The rest of the state gives Omaha an untrue stereotype.

nativeomahan · Post by **nativeomahan** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 9:15 pm

Omaha has much more in common with KC, MSP, STL, Chicago and the like than we do with rural Nebraska. I have lived in Omaha my entire life (50 yrs!) and while we are still fairly white and WASPish, it is not nearly has homogeneous as it was in the 1970s and 80s. It is not unusual to hear shoppers speaking languages other than English or Spanish while out and about.

Stargazer · Post by **Stargazer** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 10:00 pm

There was a $700,000 home featured on some Home and Garden show today (sorry, can't recall what it was... just happened to catch it flipping through channels)... they mentioned all sorts of positive things about Omaha (and didn't even qualify it with 'Nebraska'

).

nebport5 · Post by **nebport5** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 11:40 pm

Stargazer wrote:There was a $700,000 home featured on some Home and Garden show today (sorry, can't recall what it was... just happened to catch it flipping through channels)... they mentioned all sorts of positive things about Omaha (and didn't even qualify it with 'Nebraska' ).

I saw that too, it was on HGTV. It was very positive.

SabrinaFaire · Post by **SabrinaFaire** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 6:12 am

DTO Luv wrote:-First all no one I talked to had even heard of the CWS.

I never heard of it until we started looking into moving here. Most of my friends back home have the reaction of "Oh, they have a world series for college?" in Chicago, college sports just aren't very big.

Candleshoe · Post by **Candleshoe** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 10:53 am

Omaha has much more in common with KC, MSP, STL, Chicago and the like than we do with rural Nebraska.

I dunno, correct me if I'm wrong, but this sounds like somebody's afraid of rural cooties or something. I could just as easily say that rural Nebraska has much more in common with rural New York, rural California, rural Illinois and rural Hawaii than we do with Omaha.

Silly! :lol:

DTO Luv · Post by **DTO Luv** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 12:05 pm

Well you'd be right.

Stargazer · Post by **Stargazer** » Sat Jun 21, 2008 12:23 am

I didn't see it... but my wife said that Cesar Milan (aka the Dog Whisperer) did an episode in Omaha... they showed shots of downtown and the Old Market as well.

Swift · Post by **Swift** » Sat Jun 21, 2008 12:06 pm

Streets and I tried to go eat at Dixie Quicks the other day, but Food Network was taping an episode of some show there (we would have to eat whatever they brought us, but I'm a vegetarian so that was out. We went to Zio's instead).

There might have been a post about this in other threads. I think the show was "Diners, Drive Ins and Dives"

jjjjhskr · Post by **jjjjhskr** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 4:36 pm

I got to be part of the filming at Dixies. It took forever but it was fun. What's funny was Rob was wearing a Shriner shirt that he bought 10 years ago that had my first name embroidered on the front and my last name on the back - weird!

mchine73 · Post by **mchine73** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 9:52 am

A nice story about Lambert Bartak the organist for the CWS

Most major league teams do not employ organists anymore. Even the Omaha Royals, Rosenblatt’s primary tenants, stopped using Bartak a few seasons ago. It is possible that none of the players on the eight teams that made this year’s College World Series have played in another stadium with an organist.

The slow death of organ music may soon hit this event, where the organ still thrives as if there were no tomorrow, only yesterdays. A new stadium is planned for downtown Omaha in 2011, and Bartak doubts that there will be a spot reserved for an organist.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/sport ... ref=slogin

thenewguy · Post by **thenewguy** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 8:41 pm

"What you get for the money" on HGTV feautred a house from Omaha. They made a reference to people thinking "corn" when they hear Nebraska, but that when you get here it's not really like that. Showed the obligatory skyline shot, old market, craftsman style homes (among others), conagra park, etc etc. Said it was a hidden gem, and is "beginning to toot their own horn" and discussed the parks, trails, arts scene, restaurants (showed spaghetti works), and so on.

Not a bad house, almost too modern on the inside, but warm and chic in appearance, overall.

Bomaha · Post by **Bomaha** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 11:22 pm

Okay, was looking at most played youtube videos and clicked on this Jonas brothers one at the top.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyzB16st8wM

That was filmed in the Convention Center (99.9% sure)

granted it's not national media, but pretty close.

just thought that was funny[/center]

Uffda · Post by **Uffda** » Thu Jul 24, 2008 6:58 am

yeah there were several buses parked in their the night of the concert and several more outside for the next night concert group.

UNMCStudent · Post by **UNMCStudent** » Thu Jul 24, 2008 10:14 pm

Has anyone else caught a new commercial for AT&T Wireless? Maybe I'm paranoid, but I think Omaha is the "podunk, little town" with "no-bars" they're referring to.

[youtube][/youtube]

Coyote · Post by **Coyote** » Thu Jul 24, 2008 10:20 pm

After seeing that commercial I would have to concur - given the timing.

TitosBuritoBarn · Post by **TitosBuritoBarn** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 2:01 am

Maybe she just likes Michael Phelps. I mean, if she is that big of a fan, why wouldn't she actually be at the trials if she lived in Omaha rather than watch it on TV?

2Adam29 · Post by **2Adam29** » Sat Jul 26, 2008 9:49 am

I've been told it was referring to Ann Arbor MI, which is where Phelps currently lives and doesn't receive coverage by Verizon Wireless.

At first though, I was sure it was referring to Omaha and it got me upset off pretty bad.