Michigan ads target residents in red states with vows to protect their 'human freedoms'

Lansing — The state of Michigan is spending an initial $30,000 on advertising appealing to residents in Republican-led states, attempting to woo them into moving to a state where their "fundamental human freedoms" are protected.

The digital ad campaign, which launched last week, is being deployed in South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Texas, Georgia and Tennessee, according to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

The state's economic development agency launched the ad campaign using business marketing funds as part of its efforts to recruit workers for new and existing businesses, MEDC spokesman Otie McKinley said.

The campaign, McKinley said, is part of a "concerted effort to attract talent and business to Michigan by highlighting a business-friendly environment that also protects people’s rights and freedoms."

"These digital ads in target markets are all about promoting people and personal rights here in Michigan while also highlighting attributes of living, working, and thriving in Michigan," McKinley said.

The campaign comes as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer focuses on growing the state's stagnant population and promoting the voter-approved expansion of abortion rights and the Democratic-controlled Legislature's passage of new laws protecting gay, lesbian and transgender residents from discrimination in employment and housing.

The ads include photos of individuals and families with phrases such as "In Michigan, all are welcome: Discover the benefits of living in a state that protects your rights," and "In Michigan all are welcome: Enjoy your right to reproductive freedom."

The latter ad features a photo of three young women who appear to be walking on a college campus.

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation, in posting one of the ads to Facebook, wrote, "Michigan is proud to protect you fundamental human freedoms. We're a state that's on the right side of history."

Whitmer touted the ad campaign in a social media post Tuesday, repeating a line from her State of the State address earlier this year, when she said "bigotry is bad for business."

The Democratic governor has called on residents and businesses in other states to move to Michigan because of the state's new constitutional amendment guaranteeing women a right to an abortion and an expansion of the state's civil rights law adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of protected classes, such as race and ethnicity.

"I wasn't kidding when I said bigotry is bad for business," Whitmer wrote Tuesday. "If you live in a state trying to restrict your rights and freedoms, move to Michigan."

Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Texas were among the states with the fastest growing population between July 2021 and July 2022, according to analysis by Pew Charitable Trusts. All of the states targeted by Michigan's ad campaign gained population between July 2021 and July 2022. Michigan was one of 18 states to lose population within the same time frame.

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The ad's placement in the Florida market comes amid a war of the peninsulas, as the red and blue states compete on political, economic and population fronts.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has fundraised hundreds of thousands of dollars from Michigan residents in the past, most notably during the pandemic when he visited Northern Michigan amid a Florida COVID-19 surge.

Florida's chief financial officer in April 2021 sent Whitmer tourism pamphlets after a controversial trip she took to the southern state during the COVID-19 pandemic made national news. Her administration at the time had encouraged residents not to travel out of state during the pandemic.

Additionally, in March, a conservative think tank based in the Sunshine State sponsored a billboard in Lansing encouraging Michigan residents to move there in light of Michigan's recent repeal of the right-to-work law, which outlawed union contracts requiring employees to pay labor unions a fee as a condition of employment.

"The free state of Florida protects your right to work," the billboard from the nonprofit James Madison Institute said. "If you seek a pleasant peninsula, move to Florida."

The invitation was a riff on Michigan's motto: "If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you."

eleblanc@detroitnews.com

Staff writer Craig Mauger contributed.