Pure Michigan Is the Latest Casualty in U.S. Tourism Promotion Funding

For 13 years, the Pure Michigan ad campaign has been a fixture across media in the United States, often featuring Detroit native and actor Tim Allen. Its folksy and down-to-earth appeal has seen it morph into something of a state slogan, featured on license plates and sweatshirts inside the state at the same time it's broadcast to would-be visitors elsewhere. But come January, the campaign will go dark on TV screens, radios, print outlets, and other advertising channels, after Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer used her line item veto power to axe the program's entire budget, which was $36 million in 2019. The funding was not restored in the $574 million budget deal that lawmakers reached last week. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0AhpNhTD9M Pure Michigan is a campaign run by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, the state's marketing arm. Otie McKinley, spokesperson for the program, told Skift that beginning in early Janu