Two of Baltimore?s most well-known icons are going to tie the knot.
The newest advertising campaign for Baltimore-based Smyth Jewelers, developed by MGH marketing firm, includes a billboard ad showing Mr. Boh proposing to the Utz potato chips girl. The tagline reads, “When Baltimore gets engaged.”
“Natty Boh is just about as Baltimore as you can be,” said Ruth Ann Carroll, director of advertising at Smyth. “And the Utz girl, although she originally comes from Pennsylvania, we?ve kind of adopted her here. The whole thing just says Baltimore.”
John Patterson, the creative director at MGH, said it was smart to go after the young people who are getting engaged.
“Frankly, if you look at the advertising for jewelry stores, it?s kind of stuffy,” Patterson said. “People are getting engaged in their 20s and 30s. Stuffy doesn?t really cut it.”
The advertising was placed around Baltimore near bars and movie theaters ? places for a typical date ? and includes decorated cars driving around town that say “Just Engaged! And the ring is from Smyth!”
MGH also created a Web site at www.getengagedhere.com where people can post their engagement announcements for free.
“It?s all just a reminder that Smyth owns the engagement market,” Patterson said. “When you think of chips in Baltimore, you think Utz. When you think of beer, you think Natty Boh. And when you think engagement, you think Smyth. It?s three Baltimore institutions.”
Carroll said she hoped the new campaign would encourage everyone in town to come to Smyth. And it seems to be working so far.
“One of my employees even made a proposal card out of the artwork on the billboard so that he could give it to his girlfriend,” she said. “People just love it. We?re really excited by it.”
Patterson said he?s gotten a lot of calls about it.
“It touches a nerve,” he said. “The national jewelry chains couldn?t do anything like that.”
MGH
100 Painters Mill Road, Owings
Mills; 410-902-5000; www.mghus.com
