State Fair ads ripped from the airwaves

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah State Fair pulled its original television commercials from the airwaves on Thursday — opening day for the fair — and replaced them with ads from 2008.

"We've changed our ads out," said Denise Allen, state fair spokeswoman. "The (Utah State Fair) Board wasn't happy with the ads."

She said they just didn't convey what the board wanted to about the popular annual event.

Instead, previously aired commercials from the 2008 fair, featuring a cow, were updated with current dates and will be used in place of the originally slated commercials, which feature an outrageously dressed black actor who sings and dances somewhat provocatively about the state of a funnel cake, beginning "so smooth and so creamy" as dough, then is turned into "a deep-fried delicacy."

The ad creators were conveying the idea that not only funnel cakes, but corn dogs and eating dessert first, all common fair fare, is "uncommonly good" — the theme of this year's state fair.

In another 2010 State Fair ad, the same man sings inside a blue-ribbon pig exhibit at the fair, specifically about the various cuts of meat a pig might produce.

The commercials don't contain any specific or offensive references but could be portrayed as somewhat bizarre.

"Dessert before the meal" isn't a question when wandering through the exhibits and events at the state fair, sings the actor, wearing a blue bandana, blue shorts and a leather jacket. Also, he "loves your ham hocks."

State Fair advertisements made the news in 2005 as well; however, it was because they were so well-received. Popular "Napoleon Dynamite" star Jon Heder and co-star Efren Ramirez appeared as their film characters.

e-mail: lynn@desnews.com