CHICAGO – Chicago aldermen questioned whether promotional videos produced by World Business Chicago featuring Mayor Brandon Johnson amount to city marketing or political advertising during a hearing Thursday.
Promoting Chicago or promoting the mayor?
The backstory:
Representatives from World Business Chicago did not attend the hearing. Critics argued the videos resemble campaign commercials, while the organization said Johnson is an appropriate spokesperson for the city and that no public funds were used to produce the ads.
World Business Chicago is public and privately financed, so some of your tax dollars do go toward it.
“World Business Chicago is supposed to sell Chicago to the world,” said Ald. Samantha Nugent of the 39th Ward. “City and state funding, taxpayer dollars go towards World Business Chicago and taxpayer dollars should not be spent on political advertising, and this appears to be a political advertisement, and that is why we wanted to bring World Business to Chicago to come in for a conversation.
What’s next:
World Business Chicago receives much of its funding from city and state grants. They say touting the economy and billions in investment is core to their mission.
The Source: The information in this report came from statements made during a Chicago City Council hearing, comments from World Business Chicago and Ald. Samantha Nugent, and publicly available information about the organization’s funding and mission.
