Why CT? Provocative pizza campaign part of effort to shift state image

For decades, Connecticut has suffered from an image problem with criticism from outsiders, Joe Rogan, and most recently the Boston Globe, which urged Connecticut to give up and become part of New York.

It takes work to counter the enduring portrayal as a boring cut-through between New York and Boston and bring tourism dollars into the state, especially after seven years of a marketing campaign called “Still Revolutionary.”

In Connecticut, that means pushing as many attributes as possible to promote a small state in southern New England that longtime residents consider to be a great place to raise a family with top-notch schools and an attractive shoreline from Greenwich to Stonington.

Residents of other states might not realize that Connecticut is where complicated, technological marvels like helicopters, jet engines, and submarines are made.

Or that there’s more to visit than Mystic Aquarium and the casinos.

That’s where Anthony Anthony comes in.

As the state’s chief marketing officer, Anthony has been charged by Gov. Ned Lamont to spread the word about the Nutmeg State through advertising campaigns. Anthony’s team, for example, created a theme of “Make It Here,” which touted the submarines and spacesuits that are manufactured by the state’s highly trained workforce.

One of the most prominent things that Connecticut makes is pizza, which Anthony’s Office of Statewide Marketing and Tourism has spun into a ‘ragebait campaign’ proclaiming Connecticut as the pizza capital of the United States. That bold proclamation, which has been dismissed by other states who take pride in their pizza, marked a sharp change from the previous campaign in 2012 of ‘Connecticut: Still Revolutionary’ that was criticized by detractors as stodgy, outdated, and ineffective.

“What all of this boils down to is we are showing the world what the real Connecticut is,” Anthony told The Courant in an interview.

“This is the Connecticut that has been there, but we’re giving them the authentic side that wasn’t communicated before. This is not ‘Still Revolutionary.’ This is ‘Make it Here,’ and it’s more about really modernizing our message and properly showing who we are and what we stand for,” he said. “The reality is these are some of the things that we have to do to cut through the noise in a very crowded media ecosystem in 2024 and 2025.”

Connecticut has often defined itself as a great place to live and work because of relatively easy access to the metropolitan centers of New York City and Boston. But detractors portray Connecticut as simply a drive-through state halfway between Albany and Providence, let alone the other bigger cities.

During the failed rope-a-dope campaign to bring the New England Patriots football team to Hartford more than 25 years ago, Boston Globe sports columnist Dan Shaughnessy declared that Hartford is “America’s filing cabinet” and that “Hartford makes Worcester look like Paris.”

Today, Connecticut is not alone in the 50-state battle for tourists.

For years, the best-known campaign in the country was the “I Love New York” theme that played out on television screens and urged travelers to head to the Empire State. The campaign started back in 1977 when New York was having financial problems, and officials now say that it is the most imitated advertisement of its kind. Competition between Connecticut and New York is nothing new.

Other states and cities have tried similar efforts at times. After Vermont was devastated by severe, unexpected floods in July 2023, officials tried to lure travelers back only a few months later with a “Very Much Open” campaign. San Francisco, an iconic California haven that has been recently plagued by crime and homelessness, started the “It All Starts Here” campaign in 2023 in an attempt to restore the city’s former image.

Success in the numbers

The issue that has gotten the most attention is pizza.

Connecticut has taken an aggressive stance on pizza, a culinary delight that stirs more passions than most other food. While the state has high-quality oysters and other fine culinary offerings, those do not lead to a food fight in the same way as pizza.

When drivers on Interstate 84 are crossing the state border into Danbury, they are greeted with a sign that boldly declares that Connecticut is the “home of the pizza capital of the United States.”

The marketing strategy has gone much deeper this summer into the heart of New York City, where it struck a cord with 11 billboards that were purposely placed near some of the top pizza outlets in Little Italy and Greenwich Village in Manhattan, along with the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. New Yorkers dismissed the idea as preposterous when they saw billboards with all capital letters that said: “The Nation’s Best Pizza: Not You, New York.”

Besides placing ads in crowded areas like Times Square and busy subway stations, the Connecticut marketers then placed digital ads on Facebook and Instagram in New Jersey, Detroit, and Chicago.

“On average, we have less than the national average in terms of marketing spend, so we needed to make sure that our reach was packing a punch,” said Anthony, a former New York City resident who oversees a staff of 10 state workers as part of the state Department of Economic and Community Development. “So, a move like that would not only get eyeballs, but it would also get people writing about it and get a ton of earned media and get a lot of people talking online – so the impact would be wildly outsized compared to the investment.”

So far, Connecticut has spent nearly $250,000 on the pizza ads. In return, officials estimate they have received more than $30 million in  advertising value after articles in The New York Times and The Boston Globe, as well as being mentioned by numerous New York City television stations and comedian Stephen Colbert on CBS on late-night national television.

They also calculate that day trips to New Haven have increased by 22%, including a 12% increase in overnight trips by New Yorkers to Connecticut. In addition, pizza-related searches on the state’s tourism website, known as CTVisit.com, was up more than 50% compared to the previous year.

“In a day when Washington, D.C., California and New York are getting most of the headlines, little old Connecticut is punching above its weight class in part of the conversation,” Anthony said.

Gov. Ned Lamont, who appointed Anthony to the position and has touted his work, said that the buzz and media attention around the issue shows that the marketing campaign has been a success.

“Everybody’s talking about it,” Lamont told The Courant. “I like it.”

Citing the statistics of increased visits to New Haven, Lamont said, “That sounds like a lot of slices of pizza that are being sold.”

Since pizza has become a major source of geographical pride, politicians weighed in when the highway signs went up.

On X, formerly known as Twitter, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, who is a friend of Lamont, wrote, “You’re not even the pizza capital of the tri-state area.”

Forgotten, thankfully forgotten

Historically, Connecticut has had many marketing campaigns, including some that are long forgotten. Those have included “Connecticut. Full of surprises” in 2001, ‘Connect’ In Connecticut in 2005, “Real Fun Is Closer Than You Think” in 2007 and “Connecticut – Your Staycation Destination” in 2008. And there was “Find your Vibe.”

After Connecticut’s tourism budget was cut to $4.1 million in 2018 during the ‘Still Revolutionary’ campaign, the spending level was sharply below some other states that included tourism budgets of $70 million in New York, $12 million in Maine, $10 million in Massachusetts, $9 million in New Jersey, $7.2 million in New Hampshire and $5.5 million in Rhode Island.

The Lamont administration is keenly aware of the passions around pizza and how some diners are offended upon hearing that their state’s pizza might not measure up to Connecticut.

“Governor Lamont sought an innovative way of attracting new residents and businesses to Connecticut by showing our neighbors our incredible restaurants, promoting our vibrant downtowns and highlighting our history,” said Rob Blanchard, Lamont’s chief spokesman.

“Sure, it may have playfully ruffled some feathers, but this unique strategy paid off and not only celebrated our state but helped boost tourism. Whether visitors made a day trip or decided to spend the week, we hope they enjoyed Connecticut and are perhaps even considering calling it home.”

The marketing campaign is personal to Anthony, who talked about some experiences that reflected on the views of residents.

When he was hired by the governor’s office in early May 2021, he initially lived in a hotel in Farmington for several weeks because his house wasn’t yet ready for his wife and family. He showed up at the hotel with a large amount of luggage, and the person at the front desk asked him if he was moving to Connecticut. He enthusiastically said yes.

“She then said to me: why?” Anthony recalled. “That was my first case of this Connecticut-down-on-its-luck mentality.”

After his wife arrived a few weeks later in Connecticut, they went to the doctor when she was pregnant with their son. In the same way, they talked to a receptionist and told her that they were new residents.

“She did the same thing, and she said, ‘Why?’ ” Anthony said.

“That was an eye-opening experience for me,” Anthony said. “I realized there needed to be some perception change and, more importantly, a cultural shift. We really needed to engage our population and change the culture and conversation a bit to make sure that people saw the real Connecticut not as a drive-through state but a drive-to state.”

Christopher Keating can be reached at [email protected]

Originally Published: September 7, 2025 at 5:45 AM EDT