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'Ugly Town'? Market that!

Ad man thinks his idea for Philly is bee-yoo-ti-ful.

"Do Not Feed the Animals" poster: Inspired by John Waters.
"Do Not Feed the Animals" poster: Inspired by John Waters.Read more

Oh, it's getting uglier.

Travel & Leisure mag's recent report that Philadelphia has the fewest attractive citizens - widely interpreted as Philly is Ugly Town USA - has drawn retorts:

Ellen DeGeneres rebutted it on her show. A bit in the Wall Street Journal slammed the methodology. Maxim mag posted a Web special highlighting local lovelies, including actress Ana Ortiz, TV host Kelly Ripa, and the 76ers' dance team (some of whom are from here).

Wrong approach, says ad man Steven Grasse of the agency Gyro Worldwide.

Grasse says Philadelphia should embrace its outer homeliness. He and his staff, known for edginess, have created an ad campaign that he plans to offer to the city.

The six ads contain simple photos of plain people, accompanied by lines such as: "Don Not Feed the Animals" and "Every Day is Halloween in Philadelphia."

One ad (see E1) shows Don Vito, the funny uncle of Jackass star Bam Margera.

Another, picturing a transvestite on a hotel bed, is captioned "Philly Is More Ugly When You Sleep Over," playing off the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp.'s slogan "Philly's More Fun When You Sleep Over."

Ugly will work, Grasse said. Since beautiful people like to feel superior to everyone else, he said, a weekend in Philadelphia can provide an ego boost - "even if you are kind of ugly yourself."

Grasse said he was inspired by filmmaker John Waters on the TV show Dinner for Five. Waters said that when Baltimore won a similar distinction, he tried to get the city to use it in its campaign.

The GPTMC, shown the proposal yesterday by a reporter, did not bite. It snarled. Head Meryl Levitz pointed out that "Travel & Leisure did not call us the 'ugliest city in America' " and added that "GPTMC is very happy with our present agency."

Grasse said he would find out which publications run GPTMC ads. "We're going to pay money to run [the ads] ourselves. . . . This is much more interesting than the Liberty Bell, don't you think?"