marketing

Illinois Tollway has rolled out a goofy looking icon-figure they're dubbing Captain Tollway. Musclebound, in some kind of boxing attire plus cape in a Superman allusion, the Captain is supposed to help instruct motorists on profound stuff like planning your summer journey by checking on road conditions, the location of service plazas and the standing of your transponder account before setting off.

Channel 13 TV in Houston has been touting an "undercover expose" of the Metro transit system and ads it is running trying to get more riders. The ads of course talk about high gasoline prices and the cor lobbyistsonvenience of Metro's buses. It's an entertaining expose of what seems an expensive bit of marketing, and pretty silly, but an underlying theme of the reporters is that marketing by a government owned business is illegitimate.