Yeah, it's election season and the lawn signs are up. Lots of local issues being advertised. My favorite is the lawn sign urging approval of a local initiative to spend a boatload of money to build a few new schools to replace a few old schools. The signs read "save money, vote yes." Get it? They want people to vote yes, so they avoid saying "spend a boatload of money"; instead they make signs that scream "save money." That's marketing.

Which the local pols do a lot. One local ad campaign promotes the airport. It's an ad I've heard often on Cleveland radio; they even give the airport a catchy little tag-line "going places." That's great. My question is this: who the hell are they advertising to? I mean, if you live in the area you are probably aware that there's an airport here. And even if you aren't, you can call a taxi and say "take me to the airport" and find yourself at Hopkins quite readily -- because there's no other major airport near here until you get to Akron (and that place is tiny).

Not that all airport ads mystify me. I hear an ad for Newark Airport on the New York radio stations and that commercial plays up the retail shops and restaurants, urging travelers to arrive early so they can spend their money. So the ad campaign's objective is fairly clear. With Cleveland, it's just another waste of public money.

And it's not like we can't use that money elsewhere. I won't get started on maybe letting taxpayers keep their money. And I've already made clear that I don't favor spending a boatload of money to replace school buildings. So if the money must be spent on making Hopkins Airport more popular among the locals then I will make a bold suggestion: clean up Terminal C so it doesn't stink of urine.

Seriously, it has been months: every time I walk through Terminal C there's an under-the-boardwalk reek that simply doesn't go away. I even asked Alane's friend to verify this on Friday as she went to catch her flight. Her verdict: piss galore. Hasn't any advertising rep noticed this while jetting into town to pick up his payment? Or is that where they got the idea for "going places"?