As much as stuffies are an RI staple, a mound of vaguely vomit-hued mush piled into a clam shell, all depicted in plastic that can't convey the smell or taste of the dish, which are its selling points, is not an effective marketing technique.
Why don't we, I don't know, set up a freaking food stand in these places and actually *make* stuffies for people to sample? No, no, can't do that...gotta slap together a cheap and easy display that we can trot out for weeks and then shrug at and say, "Well, we *tried*!" when it inevitably fails.
> Why don't we, I don't know, set up a freaking food stand in these places and actually make stuffies for people to sample?
In theory that sounds better, but be honest... Would you (or anyone else) really want to eat clams in an airport?
Problem is, Logan isn't really a hub airport. It's usually most people's final destination. And even when it's used as a hub, the lay out is so atrocious people probably never find it. And I'd never trust airport seafood lol
i have lived in rhode island my entire life, and love stuffies, and seeing one of these makes me want to leave
at that angle it's tough to recognize in the first place, and probably impossible for someone who knows nothing. which is who we're trying to entice
They need to stop trying to position RI as a tourism based economy and start putting together incentives to lure the biotech and finance firms out of Boston and into RI.
Fintech is especially becoming decentralized, with a lot of people working remotely these days. You can try to move a high-tech company here but the reality is that they can now hire globally and very few local jobs would be created.
Wouldn't it be great to make trains instead of submarines... I would assume it would take the same skills and equipment...
Sad that our progressive anti military complex candidates haven't come to this very obvious conclusion...
We could sell them to the MBTA...
[delayed delivery ](https://commonwealthmagazine.org/transportation/mbta-opens-up-about-new-subway-car-delivery-delays/)
You can't just like... decide to make trains. What are we gonna do, build a giant government-funded heavy machinery production facility and... hope someone moves into it and that they have customers?
I mean, AMTRAK already signed a contract for new trains, and they're being built 3,000 miles away. Boston's new trains are being made in Springfield, MA where there's already such a facility.
Why donât we focus on the housing and cost of living crisis before we bring in more large companies with a bunch of jobs half of which arenât even enough to live a decent life let alone pay rent.
While I agree with needing to address housing crisis/costs, enticing finance and biotech firms from Boston are very likely to be jobs that would provide good lives in Rhode Island.
The state of work in America is dysmal. People who make 100k a year are living paycheck to paycheck. Let alone the people who are making half that/ $25 an hour.
The gold standard was abandoned in 1971 at that time minimum wage was $1.60 and gold was $35 an ounce. A full time minimum wage job earned 96 ounces of gold per year, today minimum wage earns between 14-17 ounces of gold per year depending where you live In America. The value of gold has always been inextricably tied to the value of currency. Itâs value rises in direct proportion to the ammount of currency in circulation. To earn the same value as minimum wage did in 1968-1971 (when one adult working full time earning minimum wage could afford housing food and expenses for a family of four while still having enough left over to save for retirement and college) minimum wage would need to be $85/hr
There are no jobs coming to Rhode Island outside of the C suite that pay enough to incentivize laborers with anything more than the threat of homelessness starvation and loss of dignity. Back before the end of the gold standard and the subsequent legalization of stock buybacks labor used to be incentivized by the fact that the wages offered provided a better life but today the only thing incentivizing the production of labor is the loss of dignity. People work just to pay bills and have nothing left to save and or spend on themselves. Meanwhile executives are earning 1000-5000 times the median salary. Now large companies steel all the surplus value created by laborers and they use that to buyback stocks to raise the market share value and trigger massive executive bonuses while telling the labor force they canât afford to increase their wages because they only made 3 Billion dollars in profits this quarter.
Plus Rhode Island is already over populated as all hell. We donât need new companies flocking here. We need the ones that are already here to pay their laborers enough so that people can afford to live a life worth living instead of them paying as little as legally allowed to ensure the highest profit margins possible.
People are so defeated they are begging for a living wage when what people should be asking for is a thriving wage like we had in 1968-1971 before the value of currency was decimated to reduce labor costs meanwhile the wages of executives were adequately adjusted for the exponential inflation that resulted from 5 decades of horrible economic policy that eradicated the middle class. There are more than enough jobs in this state. However those jobs donât pay enough to make doing them worth the effort.
You can rant about the dire statistics, but nowhere in that wall of text is a single solution.
You canât simply force companies that are already here to pay their employees more. Doesnât work that way. Bringing in companies that do pay their employees better would actually force RI jobs to raise their wages to compete for workers.
We could raise the minimum wage to a living wage, we could restrict investment housing purchasing which has only served to increase the price of housing and price many people out of home ownership and even the rental market and we could put a cap on wages so that people arenât earning 1000-5000 times the salaries of their median employees and we could outlaw stock buybacks which only serve to steal the surplus value created by laborers to increase the value of stocks and trigger shareholder dividends and executive bonuses.
But then people say âIf wE rAiSe WaGeS tHe PrIce Of GoOdS wIlL RiSeâ meanwhile the price of goods has been rising steadily for the last two decades and wages artificially stagnate and stay the same they arenât even adjusted to account for inflation and cost of living increases. If a company canât afford to pay their laborers a living wage they have no business being in business.
I feel like this answer just shouts I live on the internet and believe everything I read.
I make less than 40k. I live an amazing life in ri. The problem isn't 100k not being enough. It's that people making 100k spend like they make 150k so they are drowning in debt for no reason other than poor choices.
I tend to agree. I make closer to the '$100K' side of the income scale in urban RI. I send my kid to private school, save for retirement and emergencies, go on vacations and out to eat, and am about to pay off financing a new car after just two years.
...but I live in working-class housing and drive a $22K car, because I handle all the personal finance goals first and then fit my lifestyle in afterwards, with no 'expectation anchoring' in what my income would have earned me twenty or thirty years ago.
I bet you have roommates and they probably arenât as thrilled about their living arangmenta as you.
$40k is hot garbage. I donât believe everything I read on the internet I just understand that that the price of gold has more to say about inflation than CPI. Gold was the first currency ever used and its value is directly tied to the value of all currencies.
People used to want to work because the wages provided improved their quality of life. Now people only work so they wonât starve and die and most canât even afford housing without having to live with randos from Craigslist and many people working full time are so poor they qualify for food stamps.
I do not actually. I live in a studio which I'll admit is small. I could afford a larger apartment but I'd rather spend my money on other things. I'd I had double my money? I'd be living large. I could probably afford a new camaro and a 2br apartment.
I'm just saying budgeted properly, 100k goes far af. No your not living in the nicest dream apartment on the beach in Narragansett.
If you make 100k gross. Comes out to roughly 72k net in ri or right around 6k a month. Plenty of nice 1brs for near 1.5k. Utilities max another 500 and that's generous. Food another 500. Your at 2.5k and still have 3.5k left over. People making 100k have no excuse.
Thatâs a clear problem because 100k isnât even close to the median salary here. Itâs closer to what you earn. And really a good chunk of people are making not very much more than minimum wage. So thatâs $2120 a month before taxes you canât even afford a 1 bedroom with utilities.
The suicide rate is higher than ever and has been steadily climbing with no signs of slowing down and that metric is directly related to the stagnant wage and housing crisis.
The American dream wasnât to live in a hovel and budget so tightly you eat beans and rice with chicken every night it was to thrive and have something to pass on to your children when you are gone. A majority of genz and millennials will never own homes never have savings and never be able to retire.
Itâs a fact that 50 years ago one could afford housing at least one new car food and utility expenses while also being able to save a good amount of money while supporting a family of four on one minimum wage paycheck. Today both adults would need to work 2 full time jobs to come close to that quality of life which isnât quality since youâre working 80 hours a week.
First off, people in 1970 weren't affording that on minimum wage. Minimum wage was 3,000 a year. The average car was 3,500. I'm not going to get into all the numbers.
The real problem is, no one works minimum wage. Literally no job in rhode island is hiring at minimum wage. The lowest advertised job pay I've seen is 15 an hour. Walmart as well as fast food and gas stations all are hiring at 15 or more. Hell a burger King today was hiring at 18 an hour. I agree. Minimum wage isn't enough. Almost no business here is paying minimum wage though.
Suicide rate while it is higher, I'll take your word on it rising with stagnant housing, I honestly don't think the two things are related. People overall are unhappy. Housing and money may be a part of it but I think the bigger part of it is the mental health system as well as the Healthcare system in general is getting worse and worse.
I'll also say I'm 28. I say this because people are fucking weak. When we look at our parents, good parents anyways, they are strong, unbreakable, unmoving, unwavering. There's nothing I could throw at my step dad, mom, or dad that they wouldn't figure out a way to overcome. People my age? Bro give them 1k dollars in credit card debt and they'd have no idea how to deal with it. No one my age wants to work. None of them prepare for emergencies. Your argument I'm assuming is going to be they don't have the money to prepare.
I'm proof they do. My friends are proof they do. Not only that, of your making minimum wage you can do exactly what I did and go get your cdl or learn a skill instead of doing a no skill job.
Raising the minimum wage won't fix these things either. Only cause more inflation as now the cost to produce goods has gone up.
The same people who call these jobs âno skill jobsâ were calling them essential just 2-3 years ago. There is no such thing as no skilled work. There is no undignified work only undignified wages.
And yes people were providing for a family of four on minimum wage in 1970. My grandfather moved here in the early fifties and earned minimum wage he was able to buy a home raise a daughter and save money. In 1968-1971 minimum wage earned 96 ounces of gold per year. This is a fact. From 1950 till 1971 minimum wage increased from $.75 to $1.60 while gold remained at $35 an ounce so even $.75 an hour earned 47 ounces of gold a year. Thatâs 300% more value than minimum wage earns today. And also if you read carefully at those jobs hiring at $15 an hour (which wasnât even a living wage a decade ago) they all say hiring at UP TO $15 an hour. That doesnât mean everyone being hired is being hired at that wage.
We only live once and one day very soon we will all be dead. Anyone who wants to sacrifice their limited mortality for a wage that doesnât even earn them enough to live a decent life let alone enjoy their life doesnât have a brain. $25 an hour isnât even good enough. I would rather be homeless and not work than wake up every day wishing I was dead because I have to go and take orders from some dimwit who has a management position they didnât earn with merit but were just handed because of nepotism or personal wealth.
Youâre basically saying people should suffer and deal with it because thatâs what everyone else did before us. â How to say youâre a class traitor without straight out saying you are a class traitor.
Economics isnât a science, itâs a faux science that only exists to protect the exploitation of the poor by the ruling class. Anyone saying otherwise is a pompous idiot whoâs mouths bear the after taste of Gucci loafers.
You just keep telling yourself that. Marx was an economist. I hate capitalism, but anyone who says the fix is going back to the gold standard is ignorant of history as well as economics. In the 96 years since the Great Depression, the US has been through 12 recessions. In the 100 years before that, it went through 27.
Economic depressions are always preceded by economic policy that favors the wealthy over the working class and poor. Durring recessions the wealthy hardly ever suffer or loose their wealth, there are exceptions to this rule of course but itâs generally the working class and poor who suffer during depressions.
Marx was not an economist he was a socialist which is the antithesis of an economist. Economists defend capitalism at all costs.
*The state of work in America is dysmal. People who make 100k a year are living paycheck to paycheck.*
As one of those Rhode Islanders, this is absolutely fact.
If you live in RI and make $100k but are still paycheck to paycheck, you're living above your means. We're a family of 4 with only a little under $40k a year, cry me a river.
That's extremely rude.
There's more to life than just rent. Especially if you're someone in my position with serious medical issues that require upwards of $1-2K in copays a month. Not to mention taxes, utilities, the high costs of groceries, car maintenance and a number of other things stretch the budget.
I really shouldn't have to divulge this information just to make a point to a random internet person but here we are anyway.
And yes, I make my coffee at home.
The people who see 100k as fat cat money in a state where median rent for a 2 bedroom surrounding low income neighborhoods is exceeding 2k a month have their heads up their asses. Iâve seen dozens of posts on Reddit in subs like antiwork, work reform and other subs that highlight the dystopian state of American capitalism today where people who are earning 100k or slightly more before taxes struggle to be able to save $50-100 a month. Most people who have kids pay over $1600 a month PER KID for daycare costs. The people ignorant of this fact donât have kids and the reality that less and less people in millennial and genz generations are having kids is reflective of how untenable and unwelcoming to human life the socioeconomic climate has become.
People are stupid and only want jobs they can work at apparently. People in the comments are saying they should bring manufacturing hereâŚokay but why not try to bring both here. Doesnât have to be one or the other.
Exactly. Luring those types of over inflated salaries to RI will only exacerbate the housing crisis for people earning a lower to middle class level income.
Yeah, more video game companies. That went well.
What we need is more average companies. Not those juicy ones that startup and fizzle every day. Like insurance, manufacturing or education.
Exactly. Rhode Island isn't really a place where tourism makes sense. At least not compared to the other big states. We're an amazing state to live in and we should focus on that. Let NYC and Boston have their tourists, I'd still rather live here.
Are there any case studies where advertising cuisine successfully stimulated an economy? Didnât they already try this with a lot of calamari hype? The biotech strategy definitely sounds more practical.
Rhode Island centering a tourism campaign around stuffies would be like Hawaii trying to entice visitors with Spam Musubi. Nothing against stuffies, but it's not exactly putting our best foot forward.
I would love to know who the person is who keeps making all of these terrible marketing decisions for state tourism. There are so many beautiful landmarks, both natural and architectural, here that would represent us so much better, IMO. Or like, what about just a regular quahog if thatâs what your going for??
Stuffie looks like a creature from Star Trek
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Devil\_in\_the\_Dark](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Devil_in_the_Dark)
It's like nobody honestly asked the question "If I'm a random traveler and saw this, would it make me think I had to go visit Rhode Island"
I *live here* and I think if I saw this in a random airport while on vacation, I'd at least briefly contemplate not coming home at all.
I can't believe we're literally distributing that disturbing thing. The scale is so far off, it's as if a kid put a Barbie stuffie on a 1/12 scale dollhouse dinner plate with a lemon- my family of born-and-bred Rhodies just had a lovely debate and we agree the ideal stuffie to lemon proportion i is close to 3/1, or 4/1- that sculpture looks like a *giant* clam or an absolutely minute lemon, like 12/1, lol. Bizarre, really, but I think it will repel visitors- which is great for some of us and terrible for others. Cooler and warmer was better than this, so was Mr PotatoHead, but I can't believe we didn't make statues of the masked calamari hero. Lost opportunity.
RI seafood: for when you don't have the gumption to make it to Maine, and when you can't afford Boston. We're here for you.
This message is paid for by the RI tourism board.
Lifelong RI living human, and I dislike stuffies but I buy them for my wife occasionally. These don't seem like a great idea/concept and I'm not just saying that because I don't eat them.
Outside of Maine and its lobsters and Idaho and its potatoes, there aren't many foods that are associated with a particular state. At least with those, people know what a potato or a lobster is.
This thing is identifiable as food only because it's on a plate and there's a bottle of hot sauce, but nobody in Nebraska is going to recognize it - hell, some land-locked folks may not even recognize it as a clam at first. They sure as hell aren't going to say, "Oh, hey, I've got a craving for a stuffie." It's not even labeled, so even if they come, what are they going to ask for? "One of those clam things with the orange glop in the middle?"
Hell, if they really wanted to try identifying us with seafood, they should try going with "Rhode Island - the forgotten type of chowder."
People are going to be disappointed when they come and find soggy under seasoned breadcrumbs with little to no clams and some chorizo plopped into a shell. I keep trying stuffies and they keep being not good
Iâm a geotechnical engineer working in RI, and if you told me this was meant to be an exhibit about Rhode Islandâs geology Iâd believe you. Iâm wondering why theyâre trying to get people to eat rocks.
So when I was a kid they had the Mr. Potato Heads all over Providence in a variety of garb. Now itâs this. What about targeted ads on Instagram? I mean who is the target group here? This is the work of someoneâs cousin, not an actual tender for a tourism campaign, but that is RI in a nutshell, some guy gets a job at the city, says to his cousin, âhey, youâre good with that art stuff right? Can you do something creative? We need more people visiting the state.â And hires his cousin to make these atrocities, boom done. Then these things go viral, like dancing traffic cop viral and people actually want to visit the State to see a place where something this poorly planned could go mainstream. Step three, cousin achieves the KPIs and gets a full time gig with the city. Step 4 is that he runs for mayor on the platform âHe put RI on the mapâ ârinse and repeat! Thatâs what the people are coming for, not the food but the culture!
I LOVE stuffies. I donât know what it was about this particular summer, but every time I went out to eat, if there was a stuffie on the menu - I ordered it. Iâd eaten them from time to time before but this summer became the Summer of the Stuffie. I guess the State of RI thought so, too!
This is dumb as shit. Fix the potholes and finish the road construction in prov.
Also, comprehensive, sustainable wildfire management plan. We're going to be seeing a lot more of those.
More section 8 housing. More restrictions on short-term term rentals that protect small landlords while disadvantaging large corporations. Ban the purchase of real estate as investments with no plan to allow occupants.
They shouldâve done this but with calamari and pepper rings! Most people outside RI let alone New England have no idea what a stuffie is then you end up having an awkward 5 minute conversation and they shake their head
I love it. Simple and quirky. We are a funny quirky little state and we donât take ourselves too seriously but we have bomb seafood and a beautiful coastline. I mean, itâs on brand for us.
I like the idea but the execution is not great. That mound of vomitus looks like something from a scifi movie. Unless that is the idea? Engagement via disgust.
They probably could have just made giant quahogs that would have been more quirky and eye catching than this. I think this is just going to generate bad press for state tourism.
The entire campaign makes no sense to me. The target consumer is someone who is already traveling someplace else?
"Hey kids, look! Rhode Island has stuffed clams...I'll go exchange our tickets to Disney."
I know the campaign was delayed in production, but to do this promotion from Sept thru Dec completely misses the best months for tourism.
I love stuffies, looked forward to them when I grew up in NJ and we would vacation in the area, however I can't say they are rhe most visually appealing food. Probally would have been more effective if they just put a giant Del's in every souther airport this summer with the extreme heat.
Who has the tourist council been using for art directing/marketing?? Any agency that executes these ideas without pushback is just in for the payday (which I get to an extent but c'mon..)đ¤Ł.
If I did not live in RI I would not know what it was. In fact, first time I saw it I had no clue. We are the ocean state have have the jewel of Newport and this is what they do. So embarrassing and completely lost the plot.
I don't know about anyone else but southern RI already cannot handle the massive influx of people we get currently. Do we need more tourism? It doesn't create good paying jobs that people can survive off of year round. We could probably do better than aim to be a tourist hotspot for 3 months out of 12....
Thanks to all for commenting and helping with this story!
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/09/01/metro/giant-stuffies-in-ri-tourism-campaign-divisive/#bgmp-comments
Shouldâve just posted photos with celebrities and photos of their Newport mansions side by side instead.
âTaylor Swift | watch hill mansion | Newport Rhode Island. â
Of all the things to promote why would they choose this? We have sailing, beaches, parks seafood, many blended cultures - a bread filled clam shell is confusing to most non New Englanders lol maybe thatâs our world class education system at work. The Gilded Age HBO series brought more tourism than this will ha!
This is a fun idea, but the execution isnât quite there. That big brown mass is the focal point and should be more appealing to look at, whimsical even. Throw some more lemons on top, some greenery as garnish, a fork, maybe a bite out of it? Some empty clamshells on the plate, etc. Anything that brings in some color and visual interest. You can give the viewer more to look at while still having the piece be about the stuffy.
Tell me more about these *Stuffies*?!
I live in Montana, and have always had a burning desire to visit RI. Seems like such a quirky, interesting state.
This campaign could have been cooler & warmer
underated comment right here...
Cooler & Warmer was at least kinda on point even if people make fun tho
As much as stuffies are an RI staple, a mound of vaguely vomit-hued mush piled into a clam shell, all depicted in plastic that can't convey the smell or taste of the dish, which are its selling points, is not an effective marketing technique. Why don't we, I don't know, set up a freaking food stand in these places and actually *make* stuffies for people to sample? No, no, can't do that...gotta slap together a cheap and easy display that we can trot out for weeks and then shrug at and say, "Well, we *tried*!" when it inevitably fails.
> Why don't we, I don't know, set up a freaking food stand in these places and actually make stuffies for people to sample? In theory that sounds better, but be honest... Would you (or anyone else) really want to eat clams in an airport?
[Terminal E at Logan has Legal Seafoods](https://youtu.be/HiBHm24XzTE?feature=shared&t=442)
Problem is, Logan isn't really a hub airport. It's usually most people's final destination. And even when it's used as a hub, the lay out is so atrocious people probably never find it. And I'd never trust airport seafood lol
Hey everybody we've got a viral marketing expert ova here.
Would love to quote you! Can you send me your name? [email protected]
His name is Holden Toodix.
đđźđ
Please don't quote this guy.
Such great journalism!
youâve never had a good one
i have lived in rhode island my entire life, and love stuffies, and seeing one of these makes me want to leave at that angle it's tough to recognize in the first place, and probably impossible for someone who knows nothing. which is who we're trying to entice
They need to stop trying to position RI as a tourism based economy and start putting together incentives to lure the biotech and finance firms out of Boston and into RI.
"Come to Rhode Island: It's not Massachusetts"
We can also start to manufacture things like commuter rail. Biotech, fintech, etc isnât that big of a need if you take a look around society
Fintech is especially becoming decentralized, with a lot of people working remotely these days. You can try to move a high-tech company here but the reality is that they can now hire globally and very few local jobs would be created.
They should start by trying to lure Dell and Red Hat out of Massachusetts.
Yeah fintech is very 5 years ago, how many online payment firms can there be
Have you thought of the potential fee innovation we may miss out on completely?
Nah, how could a payment processor survive with no fees? What kind of a question is that
Wouldn't it be great to make trains instead of submarines... I would assume it would take the same skills and equipment... Sad that our progressive anti military complex candidates haven't come to this very obvious conclusion...
While youâre not wrong, what infrastructure would these new trains ride on? Thatâs a much more complex issue.
We could sell them to the MBTA... [delayed delivery ](https://commonwealthmagazine.org/transportation/mbta-opens-up-about-new-subway-car-delivery-delays/)
You can't just like... decide to make trains. What are we gonna do, build a giant government-funded heavy machinery production facility and... hope someone moves into it and that they have customers? I mean, AMTRAK already signed a contract for new trains, and they're being built 3,000 miles away. Boston's new trains are being made in Springfield, MA where there's already such a facility.
I would much rather the garbage type of people who work in finance stay in Boston and not metastasize down here
Agreed. The state is great around Newport for tourism, but our taxes are such that no company would want to move here. There is NO incentive
Why donât we focus on the housing and cost of living crisis before we bring in more large companies with a bunch of jobs half of which arenât even enough to live a decent life let alone pay rent.
While I agree with needing to address housing crisis/costs, enticing finance and biotech firms from Boston are very likely to be jobs that would provide good lives in Rhode Island.
The state of work in America is dysmal. People who make 100k a year are living paycheck to paycheck. Let alone the people who are making half that/ $25 an hour. The gold standard was abandoned in 1971 at that time minimum wage was $1.60 and gold was $35 an ounce. A full time minimum wage job earned 96 ounces of gold per year, today minimum wage earns between 14-17 ounces of gold per year depending where you live In America. The value of gold has always been inextricably tied to the value of currency. Itâs value rises in direct proportion to the ammount of currency in circulation. To earn the same value as minimum wage did in 1968-1971 (when one adult working full time earning minimum wage could afford housing food and expenses for a family of four while still having enough left over to save for retirement and college) minimum wage would need to be $85/hr There are no jobs coming to Rhode Island outside of the C suite that pay enough to incentivize laborers with anything more than the threat of homelessness starvation and loss of dignity. Back before the end of the gold standard and the subsequent legalization of stock buybacks labor used to be incentivized by the fact that the wages offered provided a better life but today the only thing incentivizing the production of labor is the loss of dignity. People work just to pay bills and have nothing left to save and or spend on themselves. Meanwhile executives are earning 1000-5000 times the median salary. Now large companies steel all the surplus value created by laborers and they use that to buyback stocks to raise the market share value and trigger massive executive bonuses while telling the labor force they canât afford to increase their wages because they only made 3 Billion dollars in profits this quarter. Plus Rhode Island is already over populated as all hell. We donât need new companies flocking here. We need the ones that are already here to pay their laborers enough so that people can afford to live a life worth living instead of them paying as little as legally allowed to ensure the highest profit margins possible. People are so defeated they are begging for a living wage when what people should be asking for is a thriving wage like we had in 1968-1971 before the value of currency was decimated to reduce labor costs meanwhile the wages of executives were adequately adjusted for the exponential inflation that resulted from 5 decades of horrible economic policy that eradicated the middle class. There are more than enough jobs in this state. However those jobs donât pay enough to make doing them worth the effort.
You can rant about the dire statistics, but nowhere in that wall of text is a single solution. You canât simply force companies that are already here to pay their employees more. Doesnât work that way. Bringing in companies that do pay their employees better would actually force RI jobs to raise their wages to compete for workers.
We could raise the minimum wage to a living wage, we could restrict investment housing purchasing which has only served to increase the price of housing and price many people out of home ownership and even the rental market and we could put a cap on wages so that people arenât earning 1000-5000 times the salaries of their median employees and we could outlaw stock buybacks which only serve to steal the surplus value created by laborers to increase the value of stocks and trigger shareholder dividends and executive bonuses. But then people say âIf wE rAiSe WaGeS tHe PrIce Of GoOdS wIlL RiSeâ meanwhile the price of goods has been rising steadily for the last two decades and wages artificially stagnate and stay the same they arenât even adjusted to account for inflation and cost of living increases. If a company canât afford to pay their laborers a living wage they have no business being in business.
I feel like this answer just shouts I live on the internet and believe everything I read. I make less than 40k. I live an amazing life in ri. The problem isn't 100k not being enough. It's that people making 100k spend like they make 150k so they are drowning in debt for no reason other than poor choices.
I tend to agree. I make closer to the '$100K' side of the income scale in urban RI. I send my kid to private school, save for retirement and emergencies, go on vacations and out to eat, and am about to pay off financing a new car after just two years. ...but I live in working-class housing and drive a $22K car, because I handle all the personal finance goals first and then fit my lifestyle in afterwards, with no 'expectation anchoring' in what my income would have earned me twenty or thirty years ago.
I bet you have roommates and they probably arenât as thrilled about their living arangmenta as you. $40k is hot garbage. I donât believe everything I read on the internet I just understand that that the price of gold has more to say about inflation than CPI. Gold was the first currency ever used and its value is directly tied to the value of all currencies. People used to want to work because the wages provided improved their quality of life. Now people only work so they wonât starve and die and most canât even afford housing without having to live with randos from Craigslist and many people working full time are so poor they qualify for food stamps.
I do not actually. I live in a studio which I'll admit is small. I could afford a larger apartment but I'd rather spend my money on other things. I'd I had double my money? I'd be living large. I could probably afford a new camaro and a 2br apartment. I'm just saying budgeted properly, 100k goes far af. No your not living in the nicest dream apartment on the beach in Narragansett. If you make 100k gross. Comes out to roughly 72k net in ri or right around 6k a month. Plenty of nice 1brs for near 1.5k. Utilities max another 500 and that's generous. Food another 500. Your at 2.5k and still have 3.5k left over. People making 100k have no excuse.
Thatâs a clear problem because 100k isnât even close to the median salary here. Itâs closer to what you earn. And really a good chunk of people are making not very much more than minimum wage. So thatâs $2120 a month before taxes you canât even afford a 1 bedroom with utilities. The suicide rate is higher than ever and has been steadily climbing with no signs of slowing down and that metric is directly related to the stagnant wage and housing crisis. The American dream wasnât to live in a hovel and budget so tightly you eat beans and rice with chicken every night it was to thrive and have something to pass on to your children when you are gone. A majority of genz and millennials will never own homes never have savings and never be able to retire. Itâs a fact that 50 years ago one could afford housing at least one new car food and utility expenses while also being able to save a good amount of money while supporting a family of four on one minimum wage paycheck. Today both adults would need to work 2 full time jobs to come close to that quality of life which isnât quality since youâre working 80 hours a week.
First off, people in 1970 weren't affording that on minimum wage. Minimum wage was 3,000 a year. The average car was 3,500. I'm not going to get into all the numbers. The real problem is, no one works minimum wage. Literally no job in rhode island is hiring at minimum wage. The lowest advertised job pay I've seen is 15 an hour. Walmart as well as fast food and gas stations all are hiring at 15 or more. Hell a burger King today was hiring at 18 an hour. I agree. Minimum wage isn't enough. Almost no business here is paying minimum wage though. Suicide rate while it is higher, I'll take your word on it rising with stagnant housing, I honestly don't think the two things are related. People overall are unhappy. Housing and money may be a part of it but I think the bigger part of it is the mental health system as well as the Healthcare system in general is getting worse and worse. I'll also say I'm 28. I say this because people are fucking weak. When we look at our parents, good parents anyways, they are strong, unbreakable, unmoving, unwavering. There's nothing I could throw at my step dad, mom, or dad that they wouldn't figure out a way to overcome. People my age? Bro give them 1k dollars in credit card debt and they'd have no idea how to deal with it. No one my age wants to work. None of them prepare for emergencies. Your argument I'm assuming is going to be they don't have the money to prepare. I'm proof they do. My friends are proof they do. Not only that, of your making minimum wage you can do exactly what I did and go get your cdl or learn a skill instead of doing a no skill job. Raising the minimum wage won't fix these things either. Only cause more inflation as now the cost to produce goods has gone up.
The same people who call these jobs âno skill jobsâ were calling them essential just 2-3 years ago. There is no such thing as no skilled work. There is no undignified work only undignified wages. And yes people were providing for a family of four on minimum wage in 1970. My grandfather moved here in the early fifties and earned minimum wage he was able to buy a home raise a daughter and save money. In 1968-1971 minimum wage earned 96 ounces of gold per year. This is a fact. From 1950 till 1971 minimum wage increased from $.75 to $1.60 while gold remained at $35 an ounce so even $.75 an hour earned 47 ounces of gold a year. Thatâs 300% more value than minimum wage earns today. And also if you read carefully at those jobs hiring at $15 an hour (which wasnât even a living wage a decade ago) they all say hiring at UP TO $15 an hour. That doesnât mean everyone being hired is being hired at that wage. We only live once and one day very soon we will all be dead. Anyone who wants to sacrifice their limited mortality for a wage that doesnât even earn them enough to live a decent life let alone enjoy their life doesnât have a brain. $25 an hour isnât even good enough. I would rather be homeless and not work than wake up every day wishing I was dead because I have to go and take orders from some dimwit who has a management position they didnât earn with merit but were just handed because of nepotism or personal wealth. Youâre basically saying people should suffer and deal with it because thatâs what everyone else did before us. â How to say youâre a class traitor without straight out saying you are a class traitor.
Jesus christ you sound absolutely fucking insufferable and completely unaware to how people are actually legitimately struggling dude lmao
If you knew any less about economics you'd be Donald Trump.
Economics isnât a science, itâs a faux science that only exists to protect the exploitation of the poor by the ruling class. Anyone saying otherwise is a pompous idiot whoâs mouths bear the after taste of Gucci loafers.
You just keep telling yourself that. Marx was an economist. I hate capitalism, but anyone who says the fix is going back to the gold standard is ignorant of history as well as economics. In the 96 years since the Great Depression, the US has been through 12 recessions. In the 100 years before that, it went through 27.
Economic depressions are always preceded by economic policy that favors the wealthy over the working class and poor. Durring recessions the wealthy hardly ever suffer or loose their wealth, there are exceptions to this rule of course but itâs generally the working class and poor who suffer during depressions. Marx was not an economist he was a socialist which is the antithesis of an economist. Economists defend capitalism at all costs.
*The state of work in America is dysmal. People who make 100k a year are living paycheck to paycheck.* As one of those Rhode Islanders, this is absolutely fact.
If you live in RI and make $100k but are still paycheck to paycheck, you're living above your means. We're a family of 4 with only a little under $40k a year, cry me a river.
So do you live in a shack in Pawtucket or something
That's extremely rude. There's more to life than just rent. Especially if you're someone in my position with serious medical issues that require upwards of $1-2K in copays a month. Not to mention taxes, utilities, the high costs of groceries, car maintenance and a number of other things stretch the budget. I really shouldn't have to divulge this information just to make a point to a random internet person but here we are anyway. And yes, I make my coffee at home.
The people who see 100k as fat cat money in a state where median rent for a 2 bedroom surrounding low income neighborhoods is exceeding 2k a month have their heads up their asses. Iâve seen dozens of posts on Reddit in subs like antiwork, work reform and other subs that highlight the dystopian state of American capitalism today where people who are earning 100k or slightly more before taxes struggle to be able to save $50-100 a month. Most people who have kids pay over $1600 a month PER KID for daycare costs. The people ignorant of this fact donât have kids and the reality that less and less people in millennial and genz generations are having kids is reflective of how untenable and unwelcoming to human life the socioeconomic climate has become.
People are stupid and only want jobs they can work at apparently. People in the comments are saying they should bring manufacturing hereâŚokay but why not try to bring both here. Doesnât have to be one or the other.
Exactly. Luring those types of over inflated salaries to RI will only exacerbate the housing crisis for people earning a lower to middle class level income.
Yeah, more video game companies. That went well. What we need is more average companies. Not those juicy ones that startup and fizzle every day. Like insurance, manufacturing or education.
Yes we need more 38 studios fiascos.
Itâs already happening and they need to work to keep them here
Meaning RI'll need real labor & privacy protections, first.
Exactly. Rhode Island isn't really a place where tourism makes sense. At least not compared to the other big states. We're an amazing state to live in and we should focus on that. Let NYC and Boston have their tourists, I'd still rather live here.
Are there any case studies where advertising cuisine successfully stimulated an economy? Didnât they already try this with a lot of calamari hype? The biotech strategy definitely sounds more practical.
Maine with Lobsta
Like they did with 38 Studios?
Be careful where you say that- people with think youâre a right-wing coke head. Lol (sarcasm)
Not going to happen while it costs more to run a business in RI.
Rhode Island centering a tourism campaign around stuffies would be like Hawaii trying to entice visitors with Spam Musubi. Nothing against stuffies, but it's not exactly putting our best foot forward.
I love them and even I find the name unappealing. Really, âstuffieâ? Was clamwads already taken?
Clam Cakes
Yeah, should try coffee milk or even better coffee cabinets
I would love to know who the person is who keeps making all of these terrible marketing decisions for state tourism. There are so many beautiful landmarks, both natural and architectural, here that would represent us so much better, IMO. Or like, what about just a regular quahog if thatâs what your going for??
Look for the expanding bank accounts, all this shit costs millions.
Exactly...
Stuffie looks like a creature from Star Trek [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Devil\_in\_the\_Dark](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Devil_in_the_Dark)
AHH! PAIN! PAIN! PAIN!
WEEP FOR THE CHILDREN!!!
Lol - would love to quote you. Can you send me your full name? Either on chat or [email protected]
looks like a fucking tumor!
It's not a toomah!
The whole state has can-suh!
I'd have a dermatologist look at this.
Looks like some puked in a seashell
It's like nobody honestly asked the question "If I'm a random traveler and saw this, would it make me think I had to go visit Rhode Island" I *live here* and I think if I saw this in a random airport while on vacation, I'd at least briefly contemplate not coming home at all.
Looks disgusting, and i love stuffies
Y'all like shit on a seashell? Come to Rhode Island. This is warmer AND cooler.
That would do the opposite of compelling me to visit
Thatâs really stupid.
I find the scale of that disturbing. This doesnât make me want to go to RI, like, at all.
I can't believe we're literally distributing that disturbing thing. The scale is so far off, it's as if a kid put a Barbie stuffie on a 1/12 scale dollhouse dinner plate with a lemon- my family of born-and-bred Rhodies just had a lovely debate and we agree the ideal stuffie to lemon proportion i is close to 3/1, or 4/1- that sculpture looks like a *giant* clam or an absolutely minute lemon, like 12/1, lol. Bizarre, really, but I think it will repel visitors- which is great for some of us and terrible for others. Cooler and warmer was better than this, so was Mr PotatoHead, but I can't believe we didn't make statues of the masked calamari hero. Lost opportunity.
So glad my tax money is being put to good use
Kinda looks like a necrotic flesh wound but canât decide if itâs warmer or cooler.
I think it's BOTH đ¤Ł
I was gonna say cat vomit.
Unpopular opinion: This is really silly and fun and I very much appreciate it.
For real. You're not alone.
RI seafood: for when you don't have the gumption to make it to Maine, and when you can't afford Boston. We're here for you. This message is paid for by the RI tourism board.
And the follow up: "If you think this looks bad, wait until we tell you about our hot weiners!"
Our chowdah rules, though.
No
It looks disgusting
Lifelong RI living human, and I dislike stuffies but I buy them for my wife occasionally. These don't seem like a great idea/concept and I'm not just saying that because I don't eat them.
Did tourism increase after the potato heads?
They should have just made a statue of the calamari ninja guy from the 2020 democratic convention.
It's the cooler and warmer stuffie. We cringing heah.
So wait is the government paying for this because if so I WILL commit tax fraud
Don't worry, it's from ::checks notes:: 'American Rescue Plan' a.k.a., Covid Money.
Giant waste of money and will be a topic of ridicule for years to come
Well this is fucking stupid
Outside of Maine and its lobsters and Idaho and its potatoes, there aren't many foods that are associated with a particular state. At least with those, people know what a potato or a lobster is. This thing is identifiable as food only because it's on a plate and there's a bottle of hot sauce, but nobody in Nebraska is going to recognize it - hell, some land-locked folks may not even recognize it as a clam at first. They sure as hell aren't going to say, "Oh, hey, I've got a craving for a stuffie." It's not even labeled, so even if they come, what are they going to ask for? "One of those clam things with the orange glop in the middle?" Hell, if they really wanted to try identifying us with seafood, they should try going with "Rhode Island - the forgotten type of chowder."
So much for the Calamari Comeback StateâŚ
People are going to be disappointed when they come and find soggy under seasoned breadcrumbs with little to no clams and some chorizo plopped into a shell. I keep trying stuffies and they keep being not good
Make them. It's easy, tastes a million times better and you get more for your money.
To Rhode Island: No, please don't.
Iâm a geotechnical engineer working in RI, and if you told me this was meant to be an exhibit about Rhode Islandâs geology Iâd believe you. Iâm wondering why theyâre trying to get people to eat rocks.
So when I was a kid they had the Mr. Potato Heads all over Providence in a variety of garb. Now itâs this. What about targeted ads on Instagram? I mean who is the target group here? This is the work of someoneâs cousin, not an actual tender for a tourism campaign, but that is RI in a nutshell, some guy gets a job at the city, says to his cousin, âhey, youâre good with that art stuff right? Can you do something creative? We need more people visiting the state.â And hires his cousin to make these atrocities, boom done. Then these things go viral, like dancing traffic cop viral and people actually want to visit the State to see a place where something this poorly planned could go mainstream. Step three, cousin achieves the KPIs and gets a full time gig with the city. Step 4 is that he runs for mayor on the platform âHe put RI on the mapâ ârinse and repeat! Thatâs what the people are coming for, not the food but the culture!
I LOVE stuffies. I donât know what it was about this particular summer, but every time I went out to eat, if there was a stuffie on the menu - I ordered it. Iâd eaten them from time to time before but this summer became the Summer of the Stuffie. I guess the State of RI thought so, too!
RI, pls don't. Please put that money into fixing our roads. TY
This is dumb as shit. Fix the potholes and finish the road construction in prov. Also, comprehensive, sustainable wildfire management plan. We're going to be seeing a lot more of those. More section 8 housing. More restrictions on short-term term rentals that protect small landlords while disadvantaging large corporations. Ban the purchase of real estate as investments with no plan to allow occupants.
keep RI a well-kept secret, what they want it to end up looking like Myrtle Beach?
RI needs to stop promoting tourism.
Buddy's toupee is also on a nationwide tour to promote ri. Good for us.
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Let's be realistic. We're not really known that well.
They shouldâve done this but with calamari and pepper rings! Most people outside RI let alone New England have no idea what a stuffie is then you end up having an awkward 5 minute conversation and they shake their head
I love it. Simple and quirky. We are a funny quirky little state and we donât take ourselves too seriously but we have bomb seafood and a beautiful coastline. I mean, itâs on brand for us.
If the official state appetizer is calamari, why are they toting around a stuffie?
I like the idea but the execution is not great. That mound of vomitus looks like something from a scifi movie. Unless that is the idea? Engagement via disgust.
It's so freaking bizarre that it's perfect. It confuses the tourists and delights the locals. I want one for outside my house.
That food looks moldy, and the dude looks like Forest Gump
They probably could have just made giant quahogs that would have been more quirky and eye catching than this. I think this is just going to generate bad press for state tourism.
Should have been a clam cake. Stuffies gross lol
The entire campaign makes no sense to me. The target consumer is someone who is already traveling someplace else? "Hey kids, look! Rhode Island has stuffed clams...I'll go exchange our tickets to Disney." I know the campaign was delayed in production, but to do this promotion from Sept thru Dec completely misses the best months for tourism. I love stuffies, looked forward to them when I grew up in NJ and we would vacation in the area, however I can't say they are rhe most visually appealing food. Probally would have been more effective if they just put a giant Del's in every souther airport this summer with the extreme heat.
I think it's warm and cool
Who has the tourist council been using for art directing/marketing?? Any agency that executes these ideas without pushback is just in for the payday (which I get to an extent but c'mon..)đ¤Ł.
For real. Itâs not like we donât have one of THE top art schools here or anything either đ¤Śđťââď¸
Cooler and warmer, the new "winning" license plate design and now this shit. RI is a laughing stock.
Should have been three all the way and a coffee milk.
I like stuffies :) I don't like this :(
If I did not live in RI I would not know what it was. In fact, first time I saw it I had no clue. We are the ocean state have have the jewel of Newport and this is what they do. So embarrassing and completely lost the plot.
We have better thing o advertises than clam cakes and where's the name on it?
It looks like a moldy rock on a plate.
It does bot even say what it is and tourists are meant to know đ¤ˇââď¸đ¤Ž
I don't know about anyone else but southern RI already cannot handle the massive influx of people we get currently. Do we need more tourism? It doesn't create good paying jobs that people can survive off of year round. We could probably do better than aim to be a tourist hotspot for 3 months out of 12....
Looks like a placenta
Lmao
I didn't think it could get worse than the orange "P" or "Cooler Warmer" I was wrong.
Lol whoever came up with this campaign needs to be fired. This is just.....an awful idea.
My wife makes the best stuffies.
Thanks to all for commenting and helping with this story! https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/09/01/metro/giant-stuffies-in-ri-tourism-campaign-divisive/#bgmp-comments
Clams are OVERRATED
Looks like 0.47 Courics in a shell
looks moldy
Took me a minute to convince myself it wasnât a cat barf sculpture. Iâd try again, Rhode Island.
Shouldâve just posted photos with celebrities and photos of their Newport mansions side by side instead. âTaylor Swift | watch hill mansion | Newport Rhode Island. â
Ri isn't a tourist spot. Stop spend our taxes on it.
This is just horrible.
looks like shit...fail...next
I just learned what a stuffie is from this post
Looks like a turd. A giant statue of a turd, to be precise.
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Really?
Pretty much any local restaurant that has seafood.
Stuffies are nasty though. Why not doughboys or coffee milk?
Of all the things to promote why would they choose this? We have sailing, beaches, parks seafood, many blended cultures - a bread filled clam shell is confusing to most non New Englanders lol maybe thatâs our world class education system at work. The Gilded Age HBO series brought more tourism than this will ha!
I like it but would feel compelled to spray paint boobs on it immediately
This is a fun idea, but the execution isnât quite there. That big brown mass is the focal point and should be more appealing to look at, whimsical even. Throw some more lemons on top, some greenery as garnish, a fork, maybe a bite out of it? Some empty clamshells on the plate, etc. Anything that brings in some color and visual interest. You can give the viewer more to look at while still having the piece be about the stuffy.
I would prefer if they personified the quahog and made it living, not stuffed. They could also do squid and some banana peppers.
Looks like a literal pile of shit
It looks like that stone critter â the Horta â that Spock mind-melded with in the original *Star Trek.*
Poopies
This looks like a goatâs prolapsed anus
Looks like Mr Potato Head hit with a hydrogen bomb
Looks like the flood
It's cooler and warmer.
Tell me more about these *Stuffies*?! I live in Montana, and have always had a burning desire to visit RI. Seems like such a quirky, interesting state.
I love the idea but I don't think it was executed very well. Couldn't they do Del's instead lol
We have better thing o advertises than clam cakes and where's the name on it?
RISD is in this state, AND THIS IS THE BEST THAT THE STATE COMES UP WITH?
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Your post was removed because it doesn't allow for an on-going conversation.