Mr. Sam and the Material Girl (Outtakes Opinion)

We didn’t know whether to shake our heads or laugh at The Morning News’ latest television commercial that promotes its new column “Celebrate Our Town” — so we did both.

Mari See, publisher of the monthly Rogers society magazine Celebrate Northwest Arkansas, recently began writing the column for the daily newspaper.

The spot that’s running on KNWA-TV, the local NBC affiliate, is actually one of the better quality productions for a local TV advertisement that we’ve seen. But its ostentatious theme, which features See slinking out of a limousine onto a red carpet as if she’s arriving for a movie premiere, is a tinge over-the-top even for the “star” of a magazine centered around toothy pics of people standing in line for hors d’oeuvres.

As the limo pulls to the curb, a supposed gaggle of groupies begins to chant, “Mari! Mari! Mari!” The well-sequined See finally emerges, a la Madonna, to begin striking poses beneath torrents of shimmering flashbulbs.

We’re certainly not above laughing at ourselves, so if the bit is tongue-in-cheek, then we apologize right now. But it doesn’t come across that way, and we couldn’t help but think what a contradiction it is to the kind of culture Sam Walton fostered for retail’s Vendorville.

Admittedly, Benton County is now a far cry from the humble days of Sam. But most vendors still tiptoe around town playing their excesses close to the vest lest the eyes and ears at Wal-Mart detect they’re making too much money. Maybe showy attitudes and glam-to-the-max ensembles are the new thing among Benton County’s upper crust, and we’re just too pedestrian to have caught on yet. We suspect The Morning News is so excited to have any kind of society coverage to compete with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s well-done Sunday section, that its zeal got the best of the Springdale paper.

All we know is our customers and readers are the stars in Northwest Arkansas Business Journal, not our staff.