# Pimping out Chicago as New York



## globill (Dec 4, 2005)

I suppose to many non-Americans, Chicago and New York may not be recognizably all that different. Lots of skyscrapers on relatively grid-like streets.

These days in Seoul, a New York (state) beer, Honey Brown, is being touted around the city using pics of Chicago. 

To me, it's a very bizarre use of my hometown... I suppose, to a Korean consumer, there is little if any significant difference between NYC and Chicago...

but it's just sooo wrong...


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## globill (Dec 4, 2005)

And for the record, I have seen such advertisements dozens of times in Thailand, Korea, Japan and China (and even in numerous tv ads as well). Maybe Chicago's taller buildings and (imho) more photogenic skyline are the main drivers of this trend. But I wonder how using Chicago images to promote New York may influence average people's take on the 2 cities. 

If Americans were being marketed a British product with images of Paris, or a Japanese product with images of China....wouldn't that be a bit odd and problematic?


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## krudmonk (Jun 14, 2007)

I suppose we all look alike to them...


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## Bluestreak (Nov 23, 2004)

I find it pretty funny since they used most of the downtown skyline in the picture. If it were a ground level picture it might be one thing but the whole skyline.


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## Puertalian (Sep 30, 2005)

kinda reminds me of the movie The Invisible. the movie starts with a beautiful flyover shot of down vancouver. then throughout the rest of the movie they try and convince you it is seattle. i told my friend, and he points at harbour center and calls it the space needle. sadly, hollywood screws these things up just as much, if not more than the foreign marketing directors do.


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## Xusein (Sep 27, 2005)

globill said:


>


That made my night! :lol::lol::lol:


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## canadave87 (Oct 8, 2007)

Puertalian said:


> kinda reminds me of the movie The Invisible. the movie starts with a beautiful flyover shot of down vancouver. then throughout the rest of the movie they try and convince you it is seattle. i told my friend, and he points at harbour center and calls it the space needle. sadly, hollywood screws these things up just as much, if not more than the foreign marketing directors do.


For me, there's nothing quite like watching a movie set in NYC and continuously seeing recognizable Toronto landmarks.


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## Skybean (Jun 16, 2004)

Toronto always plays NYC in movies, and I don`t see anyone else complaining. Is Honey Brown a well known brand in Korea? In terms of beer, I would think it would be well behind Hite.


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## raggedy13 (Jan 25, 2007)

canadave87 said:


> For me, there's nothing quite like watching a movie set in NYC and continuously seeing recognizable Toronto landmarks.


Or watching Rumble in the Bronx and seeing mountains in New York! (shot in Vancouver)


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## philadweller (Oct 30, 2003)

This happens all the time. The American President was filmed in Toronto when it was supposed to take place in DC. The bottom line is that most people are not observant and on the dim side when it comes to geography, architecture and cities.

Here is Philadelphia being pimped out as New York. This is Broad Street Philadelphia looking south from City Hall. 
Ironically it is another liquor ad. 









Queer as Folk takes place in Pittsburgh but is filmed in Toronto.


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## LtBk (Jul 27, 2004)

I think all Hollywood and advertiser executives think all American cities are the same.


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## philadweller (Oct 30, 2003)

Hollywood is dumb, but rich!


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## Xusein (Sep 27, 2005)

LtBk said:


> I think all Hollywood and advertiser executives think all American cities are the same.


Wrong...they think all American cities, _except NY and LA_, are the same.


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## pokistic (May 8, 2007)

Hahaha too funny!  Shooting at street level is one thing, tons of movies are made in studios in Hollywood and is suppose to be somewhere else. Just like they do in other cities, like Toronto. I guess is cheaper to shoot. But skylines? Do advertisers or movies do the same with Asian's skylines?


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## TalB (Jun 8, 2005)

I don't see why other cities like Chicago can't just advertise as themselves, which is what really gives their distinction.


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## Lightness (Nov 3, 2006)

Surprisingly they often use Rotterdam in the Netherlands as a double for your average US skyscraper urban city when a commercial is shot in Europe.


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## Astralis (Jan 28, 2007)

Not sure about this... to me there are really big differencies between NYC and Chicago and they are not really comparable - don't think that Loop can be compared to Manhattan by the number of skyscrapers and probably not by the density either. In Chicago you have big skyscrapers in the Loop but outside are all more or less houses, you can find some few storey buildings as well. In NYC you have Manhattan and other part with tall skyscrapers - for example Brooklyn or Jersey city (which is not part of NYC but is just across the Hudson river and it's part of New York agglomeration). In addition many areas in the city are covered by buildings, not houeses (Bronx, Brooklyn, large parts of Queens, parts of Long Island). If you look at agglomeration itself you can see that it's more than twice as Chicago's. I would say that NYC is some sort of a mix between American and European type of city and Chicago is a pure American one.


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## Diggs (Sep 9, 2007)

This is so true. Not only in print ads, but in mainstream movies they do this all the time. For example, the majority of Spiderman 2 was shot in chicago. The entire "L" fight was Chicago trying to be passed off as NYC.


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## gladisimo (Dec 11, 2006)

Actually even to Americans, the difference may not be noticeable. It's not easy to tell a city apart from one another if you're not a native. The only way I could tell that it was Chicago was the telltale John Hancock Center. 

A lot of cities can be used to masquerade one another, especially their downtowns, if they're portrayed without a signature building.


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## Joey313 (May 2, 2006)

I think were the only ones who notice this... many people dont really have a mental picture of each city so Chicago and Nyc would look the same to them


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## Onoudidnt (Feb 24, 2008)

i remember seeing an ad in a travel companys window for flights to toronto- accompanied by a picture of the space needle in seattle


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## Chicagoago (Dec 2, 2005)

The average person would really have no NO clue they were different cities. We all look at the background because we're just interested and in love with cities. Most people would treat the background the same as I would if it were a corn field. Yeah, it's there, but you don't really give it any attention. They just see "big buildings = big city".

I always notice how cities that are suppose to be Chicago in TV shows often just throw in downtown LA to pass off on a random outdoor scene, since they're filmed in LA. They don't really bother to worry about the actual background unless it's very integral into the scene/show.

Prison Break was one of the only shows I've seen where they actually took the effort to film in downtown Chicago. Although the offices and areas of buildings they were in had totally screwed up views outside the windows. They were in buildings they wouldn't ever be in if it had in fact been that agency/business/apartment etc.


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## isaidso (Mar 21, 2007)

philadweller said:


> Hollywood is dumb, but rich!


A more accurate summation: people are dumb, and Hollywood is rich because it knows that. 

I saw a car ad in the UK talking about the American way of life with the CN Tower and Toronto skyline in the background. Then again, sometimes they use the word America to mean the new world. Regardless, cities are always filling in for other cities in movies and commercials. Crossing the line is when a building is so obviously a recognizable image in another city, but the producers think people are too ignorant to notice.

I know most people are ignorant of Canada in general, but the CN Tower? Surely, it instantly registers that something about that imagery is off.


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## philadweller (Oct 30, 2003)

"I saw a car ad in the UK talking about the American way of life with the CN Tower and Toronto skyline in the background."

That is hysterical.

"A more accurate summation: people are dumb, and Hollywood is rich because it knows that."

True.


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## EtherealMist (Jul 26, 2005)

People arent dumb because they dont notice that a bunch of a buildings in the background are being from Chicago instead of NY. Thats not a normal thing to notice.


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## Westsidelife (Nov 26, 2005)

EtherealMist said:


> Thats not a normal thing to notice.


Why not? Well-traveled people can tell the difference.


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## Fallout (Sep 11, 2002)

Reminds me of Eurotrip, with Amsterdam scenes filmed in Prague (the same happens in Hostel). Maybe for american old building are just old buildings but many europeans would notice characteristic central european architectural style there. 


That film also had Manchester United fans hanging around in London, and some medieval german city skyline presented as Berlin (which doesn't have many medieval buildings anymore).


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## Minato ku (Aug 9, 2005)

Paris scenes are often filmed in Bucarest.


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## urbanfan89 (May 30, 2007)

Toronto has been pimped out as any US city for a long long time now.


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## EtherealMist (Jul 26, 2005)

Westsidelife said:


> Why not? Well-traveled people can tell the difference.


id say outside of Chicagoland, 9/10 people wont notice that


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## 3521usa (Dec 23, 2007)

EtherealMist said:


> id say outside of Chicagoland, 9/10 people wont notice that


^^ I'd say those 9 out of ten people are just plain stupid. I could understand if the picture was of some fill-in buildings or even street level shots.


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## zaphod (Dec 8, 2005)

I agree. Just show one or two streets that lack even subtle clues and it's harder.

As long as they avoided the el, the river, landmarks, and where downtown abruptly ends(as manhattan doesn't), few are going to notice.


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## Westsidelife (Nov 26, 2005)

EtherealMist said:


> id say outside of Chicagoland, 9/10 people wont notice that


You're missing my point. I said that any well-traveled person can tell the difference. It's not uncommon to be able to distinguish between what's Chicago and what's NYC.


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

urbanfan89 said:


> Toronto has been pimped out as any US city for a long long time now.


Some known movies to use Toronto as a US city would be Police Academy III and IV. There's also Short Circuit II. Ironically in the end part of the movie, the robot protagonist was granted US citizenship on Canadian soil.


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## WonderlandPark (Sep 9, 2007)

I have seen American ads use Hong Kong as Tokyo. So it goes both ways.


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

WonderlandPark said:


> I have seen American ads use Hong Kong as Tokyo. So it goes both ways.


Alot of people in the United States mistake HK as part of Japan. But I'm interested to see these ads


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## WonderlandPark (Sep 9, 2007)

It was like a businessman on a laptop on the Kowloon ferry with the HK skyline in the background, and the word Tokyo below it. For a computer company? Or communications or something that I forgot. (Then then had a guy with laptop at the Eiffel Tower, then Sydney, ect).


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

Toronto *used* to be a favourite destination to play New York, especially a few years back when the CDN $ was at 70 cents to the USD $, but with the currencies now about at par, much of that movie business has simply evaporated.


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## dave8721 (Aug 5, 2004)

LA gets passed as Miami for CSI:Miami (filmed in LA). And you probably couldn't find two cities that are more dissimilar when it comes to geography, vegetation...etc.


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## djm19 (Jan 3, 2005)

Well, the film industry in LA is very creative. They can take very little amount of architecture and stretch it into an entire city. It works out to varied effects, but in general most are fooled (to the shigrin perhaps of many residents who are constantly seeing temporary new york subway stations or street street from other cities that are nowhere on the los angeles map pop up in their neighbohood. But I suppose you learn to live with it.


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