Oakland’s In-Your-Face Ads Invade San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO —  Reeling from its dot-com bust and soaring cost of living, San Francisco is taking some extra lumps from a most unlikely source: Now even Oakland is making fun of it.

In a series of public ads, the long-maligned working-class stepsister across the bay is touting its own virtues--at the expense of this elite city. To deepen the insult, the ads were done free by a San Francisco firm and run atop San Francisco-based cabs--also gratis.

The zingers poke fun at the foggy city’s present economic malaise, its dreary summer weather and even its signature Tony Bennett anthem.

“Fine, leave your heart in San Francisco,” read one full-page ad that ran in several newspapers. “We’re more interested in your business.”

“Really want to be taken for a ride?” asks an Oakland bus stop ad. “Buy a house in San Francisco.”

And another: “June 21. The official start of summer in Oakland. And winter in San Francisco.”

As Oakland vies for its part of the shrinking Bay Area economic pie, its ad campaign points to the amenities of the metropolis once dismissed by author Gertrude Stein as having “no there there.”

Namely, more than 300 new businesses that “have rushed to our city like shop-a-holics to a white sale,” according to one ad. And its climate, which officials say has been ranked the nation’s best by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration--with “statistically the same number of sunny days as Orange County.”

Not to mention its economic muscle. Last year, Forbes ranked Oakland the nation’s 13th best place for “business and careers,” “30 spots higher than the other city by the bay,” sniped one ad. (Actually, it was 29 spots higher then; this year, Oakland rose again--to 10th--but San Francisco slipped ahead to place 3rd.)

Once Known as Place of Urban Ills

It didn’t used to be that way: Compared with San Francisco, Oakland was long considered a hick town, struggling with higher crime rates and unemployment, and a comparatively dingy downtown.

“San Franciscans have always seen their city as a shining, enchanting magical place and Oakland as the receptacle of all urban ills,” said Samee Roberts, Oakland’s marketing manager. “Every region has its rough spots, but we’ve always seen Oakland as a little diamond that just needed a bit of polishing.”

With its new swagger, Oakland is now challenging ancient attitudes--even old Gertrude herself.

Officials say the author’s swipe didn’t refer to Oakland itself, but rather to her childhood home there, which had burned down while she was abroad in Europe.

“This town has always suffered the difference between perception and reality,” Roberts said. “Even the most famous quote about the city is wrong.”

San Francisco officials remain unruffled by the campaign--which will soon feature new magazine ads and perhaps catchy billboards on prized enemy turf: San Francisco International Airport.

Said Carol Piasente, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce: “I don’t think San Francisco’s reputation as a world-class city is going to be damaged by a few silly ads.”

But for Oakland officials, the campaign is more than cosmetic. Rather, it signifies a spirited new attitude of business competition between the two cities.

Oakland knows it will probably never become the subject of sappy songs or a lure for international travelers. But officials say the city can step out of the shadows to attract attention in its own right.

Mayor Jerry Brown bristled when asked whether the city was like East St. Louis, suffering its proximity to a more glamorous city. “That’s way overblown,” he said. “It’s more like Brooklyn and Manhattan.”

He called the ads, which mostly run outside Oakland, “funny and lighthearted.”

“San Francisco is still a great city, the place where the tourists are and tens of thousands of hotel rooms,” he said. “But Oakland still has the potential to become a world-class city.”

The Oakland ads are part of a marketing program to enhance the city’s profile as a business location. The campaign has included tax breaks for developers and major retailers, and stepped-up tourism marketing efforts.

Officials also promote the city’s 30% cost-of-living savings over other Bay Area cities, and a bustling regional airport without San Francisco’s frequent fog delays.

Also in the pipeline, they say, is 10 million square feet of office, industrial and retail space, including 1 million square feet of new downtown office space.

And it’s not just corporate CEOs the city is after. Brown is also pushing an initiative to build about 6,000 housing units and attract 10,000 new residents to the downtown area by 2003.

Oakland’s attitude has not gone unnoticed.

The city rated a recent Wall Street Journal story for its new business allure. And Newsweek featured Oakland in its roundup of 10 cities that “have become important players in the information age”--in Oakland’s case, for becoming a more attractive location for start-ups, the magazine said.

For Roberts, such national nods do wonders to soothe old wounds in a city whose reputation has always lurked somewhere between “nebulous to negative.”

“We have borne the brunt of a lot of jokes,” she said. “Any place unlucky enough to be in the backyard of a city as beloved as San Francisco is going to struggle to find its own identity. But this campaign has collectively created a positive buzz. And people appreciate seeing Oakland finally cast in a different light.”

Stephen Creet, creative director at San Francisco’s Young & Rubicam, which developed the campaign, said staffers brainstormed for quirks that bugged them about the tourist mecca.

“The ads ring true because they are true,” he said. “Some are pretty gutsy, and you have to give Oakland credit. They could have taken the safe approach, saying, ‘We don’t want to rile San Francisco.’

“But they realized the digs aren’t mean-spirited--the tongue is definitely in the cheek. San Francisco has been a favorite sister for so long, I’m sure Oakland is getting some real satisfaction out of this.”

These days, heads turn and fingers point at ads that scream from San Francisco cabs, each bearing the city of Oakland symbol:

“Is this cab bigger than your apartment?” . . . “Tired of living where the sun don’t shine?” . . . “I left my parka in San Francisco.”

Some Are Not Swayed by Ads

And: “San Francisco is the place to be . . . overcharged for rent.”

Through a spokesman, San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown declined to comment on the campaign.

Some San Franciscans are scandalized by the ads.

“It’s ridiculous,” said Rozzalynd Wiebe as she exited a cab that carried the Oakland ad “Give yourself a raise. Move.” “Not on my life would I move there. Even the best of Oakland wouldn’t be good enough.”

Chamber of Commerce spokeswoman Piasente considers the ads a form of flattery.

“When you’re at the top, there are going to be people who take shots at you,” she said, adding: “The ads are good. They’re from a San Francisco firm, right?”

John Marks, president of the San Francisco Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, wasn’t worried about losing any of San Francisco’s 17 million annual visitors, a tourist bonanza worth $7.6 billion in revenue.

Marks also pointed to the fact that the $2 toll on the Bay Bridge connecting San Francisco and Oakland is collected only on the inbound San Francisco direction.

“At the end of the day, there’s a huge difference between our two cities,” Marks said. “You can go to Oakland for nothing, but it costs you $2 to come to San Francisco.”