The Salt Lake Tribune today kicks off a $1 million promotional campaign built around the slogan: “Our strength is our independence.”
For the next six weeks, the message will appear in newspaper ads, on billboards, and in radio and television commercials.
“This is one of the more aggressive campaigns that any Salt Lake newspaper has done — and one of the more expensive,” Tribune publisher Dean Singleton said.
The campaign confronts the state’s Mormon/non-Mormon distinctions head-on. Says one billboard showing a dish of Jell-O next to a mug of beer: “Utah. Where some prefer Jell-O and others prefer a little more kick.” Singleton said the campaign, like The Tribune itself, is a celebration of Utah as an “extraordinary place.”
“At The Tribune, we are Utah,” Singleton told the paper’s staff at the campaign’s unveiling. “We provide a place where the people of Utah can talk to each other. Different opinions is what makes us Utah.”
The campaign’s kickoff is timed to overlap with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ annual spring general conference, Singleton said. “We call it our welcome mat.”
The campaign plays with the historic differences in Utah’s culture. One television commercial says, “Utah: From roaring engines to the voices of angels.” It pictures a soaring Hill Air Force Base F-16, then the Salt Lake LDS Temple.
The ads also strive to distinguish The Tribune from its primary competitor, the LDS Church-owned and controlled Deseret Morning News. “When you open this paper, you will know it’s the unfiltered story,” says one TV ad.
Singleton unveiled the ads to the staff at a cocktail party Friday that offered wine, beer — and champagne glasses filled with several flavors of Jell-O.
“The Jell-Os are not going very fast,” Singleton quipped. “Maybe we should have invited the Deseret News over.”