Tell us what you really think about New Jersey Disparaging New Jersey may be a highly engaging pastime, but a real estate developer in the strangely-tagged “Garden State” has made his anti-Jersey sentiments more public than most. William Juliano, of Mount Laurel created a billboard which says, “Welcome to New Jersey. A horrible place to do business.” Whether you agree with the guy or not, you have to applaud his media planning acumen. He put the ad on a billboard he just happens to own over the Delaware Memorial Bridge as people enter the state. (Sorry, despite a comprehensive Googling, we couldn't find a picture of it.) What’s Juliano’s beef? That New Jersey is anit-business because officials at its Department of Environmental Protection won’t let him build a truck stop off the New Jersey Turnpike—they say the area where he wants to build is protected wetlands. We get Juliano’s point; until we heard about this story we thought building truck stops was the state’s entire raison d’etre! Ba-dum-bum! Gee, once you get into the spirit, this New Jersey bashing sure is fun. Coming soon on AdFreak, what we really think about Newark... —Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

June 2, 2005 | Permalink

Comments

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Rampant corruption in Trenton? OK, but what self-respecting state doesn't have at least a few politicians behind bars?

A series of odorous and unsightly refineries as you roll out of the Lincoln tunnel and down the turnpike? Yes, but our gas is cheaper and drivers don't have to pump themselves (by law, full-service stations only).

Crime in Newark and serial poverty in Patterson… You got us there. But admit that respectively: the airport is good and the waterfalls make a nice backdrop when someone needs to get whacked on the Sopranos.

And don't forget that...

New Jersey also has Neiman Marcus, EZ Pass, Pine Valley (best golf course this side of the Atlantic), no sales tax, Princeton University, sunny beaches and bars where you can smoke.

What we probably don’t need is another truck stop. As for Mr. Juliano's billboard... I say more of it, we can always use the ad dollars.

Gregory Pruitt
Account Management
DeVito/Verdi
New York

(Resident: Ridgewood, NJ).

Posted by: Gregory Pruitt | Jun 2, 2005 2:04:38 PM

Strangely tagged?

New Jersey is mostly farmland, hence the name 'Garden State. What many people see is a small stretch of 'wasteland' off the NJ Turnpike by Newark airport. The Northeast Corridor going through Newark, Elizabeth and the Meadowlands area really is urban blight, due to runoff and sprawl from NYC. But go beyond that...go south, go deeper, go to the coast, to the water gap...and NJ is pretty damn nice. It has some of the most prized real estate and richest zipcodes in the country.

Don't dis Jersey. Although I may now call NYC home, NJ ain't the armpit of America...unlike the places many other of the newly-arrived-sex-and-the-city groupie 'New Yorkers' come from.

As for the developer? When it comes to ethics, real estate developers rank way lower than us ad people. Maybe he should set up business in Staten Island, I hear there's a big unused parcel of land he could build on.

Posted by: Proud_Jerseyan. | Jun 3, 2005 7:05:55 AM

There are many nice physical aspects of New Jersey, indeed. Their beaches for one put those in California to shame in terms of sheer usability.

However, there are two distinct states of mind in New Jersey and they are divided by North and South, otherwise known as "New York Jersey" and "Philly Jersey." The former roots for New York teams and generally has a more cosmopolitan worldview than the latter, the mentality of which is not unlike that of the hillbillies in the film "Deliverance." Spend enough time in "Philly Jersey," with its twangy, borderline southern accent, and I dare you not to imagine you are hearing the haunting strains of "Dueling Banjos."

Posted by: | Jun 3, 2005 6:38:42 PM

Hearing an "ad person" diss generalized real estate developers is like watching the Iran/Iraq War of old. Isn't there some way they could BOTH lose?

Posted by: | Jun 5, 2005 4:08:21 PM

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