Most Americans, when asked what the capitol of Illinois is, would no doubt say “Chicago.” We’re used to that in the Land of Lincoln, as the gigantasaur on Lake Michigan reaps most of the headlines — and tax dollars – in the state.
But the folks who created a video promoting the NATO summit don’t have an excuse; they’re supposed to get it right. And the shocking mistakes they made about Chicago, the city’s most important newspaper, the Tribune, and even Barack Obama’s biography call into question just what the creators of the video were smoking when they made the final cuts.
A video promoting the upcoming NATO summit later this month inadvertently moved the meeting 200 miles south when it declared that leaders would convene in the capital of Illinois.
The summit, is of course, planned to take place in Chicago, not Springfield, but the film, produced by NATO staff, included three embarrassing errors that made native Chicagoans cringe.
The narrator of the five minute video, meant to introduce Chicago to international journalists and visiting dignitaries, also called the city Barack Obama’s childhood home — another glaring mistake.
Obama calls Chicago his hometown now, but he grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia.
The narrator also says the Chicago Tribune was founded by Colonel Robert McCormick, for whom the McCormick Place convention center is named and where the summit is being held.
Three other men founded the newspaper.
Obviously, the script writers for the video are Google-challenged.
But that’s not the end of the story. After having the errors pointed out to them by an offended Chicago Tribune, the idiots took out the reference to Chicago as the capitol of Illinois — but left the other two mistakes in.
‘It was an honest mistake and the second we saw it, we flagged it for them and they immediately changed it,’ Jennifer Martinez, spokeswoman for the Chicago NATO host committee, told the newspaper.
An honestly stupid mistake? Who cares if idiocy is “honest”? As that great American philosopher Forrest Gump once remarked, “Stupid is as stupid does.” And making the errors in the first place and then compounding the faux pas by failing to remove other mistakes pointed out to you is beyond stupid. It borders on insanity.
And nothing will endear NATO leaders to Chicago more than mentioning the city’s most notorious figure:
“Al Capone made the city notorious,” the narrator says near the end of the video, “but today, it is clear that the gangsters’ days are over, and Chicago is rich in resources thanks in particular to the trans-Atlantic links.
“On the 20th and 21st of May, the Windy City, as it is known, will have the wind in its sails.”
If you tell almost anyone from outside of the US that you come from Chicago, the most common response — even for those who speak little or no English — is, “Oh, yes. Chicago. Al Capone. Bang-bang!”
Thanks for nothing, NATO. The ranks of the Occupy NATO protestors might swell a bit, augmented by citizens of Chicago outraged at the ignorance of the NATO organizers.
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