The ads are on el platforms and 15 Brown Line cars. They’re on social media, in downtown health clubs, and on beer coasters in local bars. A typical placard juxtaposes dejected-looking young straphangers with shiny, happy people drinking beer on a terrace above Madison’s Lake Monona, playing Frisbee golf or competing in beach volleyball. The accompanying texts pose dilemmas such as “Rush hour or happy hour?,” “An hour commute or an hour with friends?,” and “Bump elbows or bump on the court?” The tagline? “Wisconsin: It’s more you.”
Adam Stevens, a 26-year-old software consultant who moved to Chicago from Milwaukee suburb Whitefish Bay, said he’s generally had positive experiences with the el. He’s skeptical about the ad campaign’s strategy: “Being from Wisconsin, there are enough positives to play off of that we don’t need to focus on anything negative to get people to move up there,” he said.
Marta Grabowski is one of them. On the Belmont platform, the environmental engineer told me the el factored into her decision to take her current job instead of one in a city with no rapid transit. “I don’t think [the ads are] going to persuade millennials to leave Chicago. I think young people, especially, like riding the train. It’s sort of a cool city thing.”
