‘CHILE CAPITAL OF THE WORLD’
N.M. roasts ‘less fortunate neighbors to the north’ in new marketing campaign that kicks ongoing chile war with Colo. up a notch
Anew ad touting New Mexico’s green chile could leave Colorado seeing red. Nearly two months after Colorado Gov. Jared Polis insulted the Land of Enchantment by calling its green chile inferior to his state’s, the New Mexico Tourism Department is turning up the heat in the debate.
The state unveiled a $278,000 marketing campaign Tuesday that crowns New Mexico the “Chile Capital of the World.” The campaign features a 30-second video that roasts New Mexico’s “less fortunate neighbors to the north.”
“Why is New Mexico green chile the only true green chile?” a female narrator asks at the beginning of the ad. “Because we’ve been doing this for hundreds of years. Growing chiles in the perfect climate — rocky, rugged soil where only the strong survive so that our less fortunate neighbors to the north can load up their wagons and keep their families warm.”
The video then shows a man in skintight running pants stretching with his back to the camera before he loads two wooden crates filled
with green chile into the back of a white Subaru with a green-andwhite Colorado “NATIVE” license plate. A red zia symbol is prominently displayed on each of the boxes.
The TV ads are set to run from September to October across New Mexico and in some Colorado markets. The marketing campaign also will include digital ads and billboards in New Mexico and the Colorado cities of Denver, Colorado Springs and Pueblo proclaiming New Mexico the Chile Capital of the World.
“Our passion and pride for chile cannot be matched, and we believe this is the right time to frame this campaign around one of our greatest passion points,” Tourism Secretary Jen Paul Schroer said in a statement.
A war of words started by Polis over which state serves up the tastiest chile gave birth to the marketing campaign.
After Whole Foods Market stopped carrying New Mexico chile in most of its stores in the Rocky Mountain region — opting instead to sell chile from the city of Pueblo at stores outside New Mexico — Polis made an inflammatory remark on Facebook.
“New Mexico stores will unfortunately not be offering the best chile and will instead keep offering inferior New Mexico chile,” Polis wrote.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham pounced back.
“If Pueblo chile were any good, surely it would have been on national shelves before now. But if Gov. Polis wants to go chile to chile, I assure him New Mexico can bring the heat,” Lujan Grisham said at the time.
Cody Johnson, a spokesman for the state Tourism Department, said the banter — or dialogue, as he called it — between Lujan Grisham and Polis inspired the state’s creative minds.
“Our creative team decided that it was a good opportunity to continue the dialogue,” he said. “The strategy and the essence of the campaign was shaped around chile because of that.”
In a statement, Polis said Colorado doesn’t need a fancy marketing campaign to prove which state has the best chile.
“The fact that they have to design a promotional campaign in support of their chiles shows how superior the Pueblo chile is. Our Pueblo chiles promote themselves,” Polis said.
“Granting yourself a title doesn’t simply make it true,” Polis added, referring to New Mexico calling itself the Chile Capital of the World. “One thing is for certain, Coloradans know the Pueblo chile is the best chile in the world.”
In July, Polis challenged Lujan Grisham to a “chili” taste-off — a mistake that Lujan Grisham seized on.
“Chili? Are we in Texas,” she wrote on Twitter, later saying New Mexico doesn’t “just spell it right — we do it better.”
Whether or not the proposed taste-off would resolve the dispute is unknown, but the taste-off is on hold while the offices of both governors try to arrange a meeting around their busy schedules.
“They have a lot more interest in scheduling it than us, I would think,” Tripp Stelnicki, a spokesman for Lujan Grisham, said of Colorado. “They have more to prove than New Mexico. Our green chile speaks for itself.”