A&E to Promote 'Southie Rules' By Trolling New Yorkers

A&E’s upcoming reality show based in Boston, ‘Southie Rules,’ has a pretty hilarious ad campaign running in New York City. A&E won’t launch a national ad campaign to promote the show, according to Boston.com, but it has put promotional posters around New York City with slogans designed to taunt its touchy residents. Clearly, the show is trying to get on our good side. Witness:

New York loves its Broadway musicals, so A&E has a sign reading, “‘Wicked’ is an adjective, not a musical.” (Wicked smart people know that it’s actually an adverb.)

For a city of Yankees fans, there’s “Support two teams: Boston and whoever plays New York.”

For a city that’s home to Madison Square Garden: ” There’s only one garden. It’s in Boston.”

There are also signs reading, “Sushi isn’t food. It’s bait.” (Okay, so we admittedly like sushi as food, too.) And, “Nobody tells us how big our sodas should be.” (You’ve been warned, Cambridge.)

Our worry with a reality show grounded in a geographic place is that the audience is invited to mock the characters and, by extension, the place they live. (See: Jersey Shore.) We’re not at all convinced this won’t be the case with Southie Rules. But at least the ad campaign puts Boston on offense, not defense. It’s aggressive in a rather stereotypically Southie way. And it’s bound to rile up some Yankees fans. What’s not to like in that?

[Photos courtesy of A&E]