WINSDOR--Where Nobody Knows Our Name

What's the expression: it doesn't matter what someone says about you in the media, as long as they spell your name right! If that's the criteria for success, then the Mayor, DWBIA, Convention and Tourist Bureau should be ecstatic this morning!

Not only did Windsor get a rave review for being a "fun place" in the Detroit News, we got coverage in the Toronto Star, Globe and Mail and a bunch of other newspapers as well.

A black eye for our town...rubbish! I frankly thought that the Mayor and Judith Veresuk, executive director of the Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association sounded a bit too stuffy in some of the articles.

Heck if the Mayor's name and face can appear in an advertising guide put out by Budweiser, then lighten up. Forget CP Rail's Christmas Train for charity...we have the "Budweiser Super Bowl Tailgate Train to help football fans across the country take Super Bowl fever to a whole new level." Why that train was launched right here in Windsor. Mayor Francis said at the launch "it's only fitting that the Budweiser Super Bowl Tailgate Train should be part of one of the most exciting community celebrations in our two cities' history. We welcome our Super Bowl visitors and promise you a fantastic time!"

Come on now, we have to keep our image up...."More than 500 hundred football fans will be transported from Toronto to Windsor aboard the exclusive train and join the ultimate in Super Bowl festivities in Windsor on February 5, 2006."

Why are we putting on a downer on all of this drinking and partying for heaven's sake. Windsor tourism has a new demographic...young males. Imagine 500 of them drinking during the 4 hour trip to Windsor from Union Station in Toronto. If they have a lot of fun, I can see this happening every weekend.

So what if the Wall Street Journal just reported: "Young people tend to drink more in areas with more alcohol advertising compared to areas with less advertising, according to a new study...People who reported seeing more ads and who lived in areas with higher-per-capita alcohol advertising consumed more alcohol than those exposed to fewer ads."

Get up and party Windsor....Aren't we "Bartown?"