Maybe We Should Just Be Laughing at Ourselves.

Okay, so this isn’t so real estate related, but it has been one of those weeks. Or maybe it has everything to do with Mammoth real estate. While Mammoth struggles with its new Brand—whatever it is going to be, and frets over announcements of coming five-star and “luxury” this-and-that, and is back promoting (like every other mountain resort community) Wellness, I discovered something else. I’m flipping through the latest Forbes magazine and the issue’s theme is the “Celebrity 100”. They rank the celebrities primarily by their “power rank”, and then their money rank, and last year’s pay.

Now the top 75 are all of who you would expect—actors and actresses, the top professional athletes, etc. But #’s 81 and 82 catch my eye. Interestingly, they’re actually ranked in the 50’s as far as their money rank. (I don’t know about you, but I’ll take money over power any day.) Number 81 in the power rank is Larry The Cable Guy, followed at #82 by Deepak Chopra. Now Deepak is all about love and meditation and perfect health—basically what Wellness is all about. In fact, he’s probably the king of Wellness, unless you want to go to the only other one on the list in the (sort of) field, and that’s Dr. Phil. And while Starwood wants to promote Wellness, I don’t think they want to promote Psychotherapy. (Although Wellness might be Pyschotherapy in disguise.)

But Larry The Cable Guy has a higher power rank then the king of Wellness. LTCG is just a blue-collar comedian, famous for “Git-R-Done!” and other middle-America humor and nonsense. Are we missing something here? If there was ever a mountain resort that fit the LTCG criteria, it’s Mammoth. Places like Aspen, Sun Valley, Jackson Hole aren’t going to take this on. But Mammoth is already it. And it beats out Wellness for power and money!

Just so you get the idea of where LTCG is coming from, this is from the bottom of his web page; *The preceding script was for entertainment purposes only. If you’re uptight, humorless, and P.C. in any way, please exit the site! Don’t read this and then bitch and moan later on about it. I can’t stress enough, life’s too short so get over yourself. Now… me and my fans cordially invite you to pucker up and kiss our collective asses!

A little lower down the list, but certainly in the Power 100, is LTCG’s sidekick Jeff Foxworthy. Now Foxworthy became famous for his stand-up comedy featuring “You know you’re a redneck when…” This is some very funny stuff and has gone on for years. Classic blue collar, middle-America, laugh-at-yourself comedy. And based on Forbes power and money rank, VERY successful.

So if we want to make Mammoth special, and more successful, maybe we should just forget about all this luxury and Wellness stuff and learn to laugh at what we are. (Although the folks in Greenwich, CT might not like it.) How many good jokes can we come up with “You know you’re in Mammoth when…” I’m not very good at this, but…

You know you’re in Mammoth when the concierge speaks Spanish, and only Spanish…
You know you’re in Mammoth when you can see all of the snow boarder’s boxer shorts in the lift lines…
You know you’re in Mammoth when you see a Range Rover do a barrel roll…
You know you’re in Mammoth when you check-in to the best hotel and the parking lot is full and you have to park down the street…
You know you’re in Mammoth when you pay $12 for a $2 hamburger…
You know you’re in Mammoth when the leader of the town only wears black t-shirts…
You know you’re in Mammoth when the Village has no place to park…
You know you’re in Mammoth when the entry statement to town is a McDonald’s…

This, like Foxworthy, could go on for years. We can laugh at ourselves endlessly from what I see. Mammoth has to have plenty of grass roots comedians. Maybe we can even have a competition. And at least we aren’t setting up false expectations for our visitors. Maybe instead of Larry The Cable Guy’s “Git-R-Done”, we can come up with something almost as ridiculous, and successful. (Maybe that’s what has the Branding experts stumped.)

And then we can spin it into real marketing.
You know you’re in Mammoth when there’s so much open space around you…
You know you’re in Mammoth when you find a line of perfect wind-blown and ski it for hours, and the boarders are all hanging in the Park…
You know you’re in Mammoth when the scenery constantly takes your breath away…