New Life

Paul Bunyan is not just for Bathgate any more. He is making a comeback, this time to promote Obamacare.

The $9 million ad campaign is supposed to get 1.3 million Minnesotans in the tent to sign up for health care. But critics call it false advertising. 

Paul Bunyan outside of Bathgate, North Dakota
Close enough in movie land to stand in for Brainerd,
because Bathgate had snow.

“The biggest travesty here is that $9 million of taxpayer money has been spent coming up with Paul Bunyan and Babe,” GOP Rep. Peggy Scott said. 

Scott says MNsure’s marketing studies, costing millions, are missing MNsure’s target audience: healthy young people. 

“How many young healthy people even know who Paul Bunyon and Babe are?” Scott said.

Ironically, the ads promote Obamacare by showing Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox incurring traumatic but survivable injuries that physically active young people would logically want coverage for, such as through the low cost age-rated catastrophic care policies that effective October 1 are prohibited by the misnamed affordable care act.

I don't think there's anything Paul or Obamacare could have done to save the poor dude who was being wood chipped in "Fargo.". But betcha the ad does more to revive interest in "Fargo" than to promote the not so affordable health care act. Better yet, maybe it will draw attention to Bathgate. If you stop by, poke your head into Reiny's Bar and say heh.