SALT LAKE CITY — A billboard campaign in northern Utah is fighting back against comments made by legend Charles Barkley when he called Salt Lake City "boring."
The city earned rave reviews from many when it hosted NBA All-Star Weekend in February but on a telecast, Barkley used an expletive when talking about his time in the Beehive State.
"These people going to heaven at this rate, there ain't nothing to do in this boring-___ city," he said.
The comment upset many people who argued that if Barkley found Salt Lake City boring, it was his own fault. On the flip side, other's agreed, saying Salt Lake City's nightlife was behind when compared to places like Las Vegas and Miami.
Max Roth has more on the billboards below:
Brandon Wright, owner of Loud Marketing Co., didn't agree with the comments and wanted to push back.
"I think that it's okay to criticize the city, I think that's healthy and while I don't agree with him, I think there's some validity in it," Wright explained. "But there's also a lot that Salt Lake City has to offer, that's not necessarily nightlife. You know, our access to nature is amazing and we just wanted to highlight that for the people that kind of align with that."
Over the weekend, billboards popped up around northern Utah that highlighted some "boring" things to do in Salt Lake City including outdoor activities such as climbing, skiing and hiking.
"You know, we didn't put photos of bars on the billboards because we don't keep up...it's not Miami, it's Salt Lake," Wright said. "We do what we do well, and that just happens to be getting outside."
There are three electronic billboards total, located at 2400 South and Main, the 900 South exit on I-15, and at 2700 South on I-15.
The locations were chosen for a specific purpose, to showcase Utah's mountains.
"We tried to choose our locations for the billboards in areas where if you saw the billboard from the freeway, you would have the mountains in the backdrop just so that you could kind of see the climbing, the hiking, the skiing contrasted with the mountains," Wright said.
In addition to the billboard campaign, Wright and Loud Marketing Co. is encouraging people to flood the internet with photos of "you living your best life in SLC."
Using the tag #BoringSaltLake, the company said they'll take the best photos and put them on a billboard in Scottsdale, Arizona, where Barkley has a home.
Wright said the billboards have made quite the splash and they're hoping the campaign helps prove that Salt Lake is anything but boring.
