Eyebrows raise after state pays Andrew Zimmern $57,500 to hype Minnesota

[TexasTowelie]

Over the past year, you might have seen Bizarre Foods host and celebrity chef/restauranteur Andrew Zimmern tweet a photo of himself doing something fun with the caption #OnlyinMN. It turns out, the state paid him $57,500 to do it.

Link to tweet

It’s all part of a marketing campaign to entice tourists to spend their money here, featuring succulent restaurant entrees, fishing trips, and other Minnesotan pastimes. Think of it as the social media equivalent of Shaq’s cheerfully bizarre Gold Bond commercials.

But it does have some folks upset. In a Star Tribune interview, Minnesota Rep. Steve Drazkowski (R-Mazeppa) characterized the campaign as “using poor people’s tax-extracted money to make rich people richer.”

Though, in all fairness, some of the rancor has to do with the fact that Zimmern's personal politics are fairly liberal. Rep. Nick Zerwas (R-Elk River) griped about that in particular on Twitter.

Read more: http://www.citypages.com/restaurants/eyebrows-raise-after-state-pays-andrew-zimmern-57500-to-hype-minnesota/510979102

[geardaddy]

1. I can't stand that prick.