REBRANDING HUMBOLDT

County-Led YouTube Effort Seeks To De-Weedify Our Image

What is Humboldt County best known for? This question was posed to more
than 100 non-locals at last weekend's Oyster Festival -- 105, to be exact
- -- and if the answer seems painfully obvious -- as it did to most
respondents -- well, that's exactly what the folks at the county's Office
of Economic Development hope to change with a new digital media project
aimed at "rebranding" the Humboldt image. "We're trying to improve the
image of the area beyond just pot, and work with local businesses to make
this happen," Humboldt County Film and Digital Media Commissioner Mary
Cruse told the Journal recently.

Cruse unveiled the "Humboldt Branding Project" to the Board of Supervisors
Tuesday with a short speech followed by a film clip. The project, she
explained, will yield six three-minute films showcasing aspects of
Humboldt County that are overlooked by, or unknown to, the outside world,
including our natural beauty, successful small businesses and artistic
panache. The message will be delivered 21st century-style, through Web
clips posted on sites like YouTube and Facebook.

"The way we consume media is changing," said Economic Development
Coordinator Jacqueline Debets in a phone conversation Tuesday. "As much as
we try to have the pursuit of happiness without our BlackBerries, YouTube
and Facebook is where a lot of people live. We want to be there."

By "pursuit of happiness" Debets wasn't comparing promo Web clips to the
Declaration of Independence; rather, it's the nickname for one of nine
local "industry clusters" identified by the county's Economic Development
Division as areas of growth in the region's economy. The "happiness"
cluster includes beer, wine, cheese and flower companies. "That's the one
[cluster] where they [the businesses] could really see the immediate
benefit to their ability to sell products," Debets said. "That was the
perfect place to start."

Debets and others involved in the branding project, including Angie
Schwab, an economic development specialist with the county who has been
guiding the endeavor, were reluctant to discuss the details, saying not
all of the contracts have been signed. Their apprehension to take the
project public may also stem from the fact that it's being partially
funded through a $44,000 Headwaters Fund grant. Spending from that public
nest egg frequently draws public scrutiny and criticism, and since the
branding project is "innovative and cutting-edge," Schwab told the Journal
on Monday, "I suspect some people will balk." The total cost, including
time for staff research and the expense of the production itself, will be
$96,000, with a $40,000 federal grant from the U.S. Department of
Commerce's Economic Development Administration as well as $12,000 from the
local businesses that will be featured in the clips.

Cruse, for one, is pumped. She described a "Felini-esque" scene to be shot
in a local brewery and a wedding scene that will be filmed at a vineyard
in Willow Creek. "We have a small, skilled and very creative crew," she
said. Their chops were displayed in the short clip shown at Tuesday's
Board of Supes meeting: Against a soft instrumental backdrop, a beautiful
woman in a sun dress ambles through a field of tall grass. Cut to: waves
crashing against a rocky shoreline, sunlight shimmering through a geyser
of sea foam. It's a beautiful, professional-looking clip. You can almost
hear the calming voice of a narrator intone something like, "Side effects
are generally mild and may include ... ."

If the crew hopes to separate Humboldt from its illicit reputation, they
have their work cut out for them. This Journal scribe meandered through
the Plaza mob during Saturday's mollusk jubilee with a hand-Sharpied sign
pinned to his shirt, requesting the perspective of out-of-towners. So what
is Humboldt County best known for? The most popular reply was a tie
between "marijuana" and "pot," each garnering 25 separate responses.
Coming in third with 13 repetitions was "weed." All told, marijuana and
its synonyms ("the chronic," "the green," "smoking") accounted for 69 of
the 105 replies -- 70 if you count the glassy-eyed gentleman who cracked a
satisfied half-smile and said, "ludicrousness." The percentage may well
have been higher had everyone been honest. A number of folks looked at
their inquisitor like he might be a simpleton, then spat out some malarkey
like "the mist," "hot chicks" (twice on that one) or "a place between
Crescent City and Mendocino."

Granted, this informal survey was conducted on the Arcata Plaza --
essentially the bowl of Humboldt County's bong. But the Oyster Fest draws
people from across the country and beyond. The (sad?) truth is that, for
all our natural beauty and rich history, all our entrepreneurial pluck and
artistic prowess, Humboldt's cannabis stigma has proved stickier than the
dankest buds.

"I was in St. Croix recently," recalled one Oyster-muncher, "and when I
told this guy I was from Humboldt he went, 'Oooh yeah.'"

The label, not to mention the moronic nudge-wink-guffaw that often
accompanies it, irks those community members who represent the more
respectable endeavors of the region, be it Humboldt State University
("colleges" got a single Plaza response), the business community
("fishing" got two; "the creamery," one; "timber," zilch) or tourism.
Among drug-free responses, "redwood trees" came in first with a mere 10
tally marks, followed by "oysters" with seven and "good people" with
three.

But Debets and Cruse aren't worried about the chronic labeling. "Nobody
can erase the past imagery or the associations," Cruse said, "but we can
work on creating something better." Debets agreed that there's no sense in
trying to fight the reputation. "I don't think we have to overcome it,"
she said, "just move on. ... The dope story is so 20th century."