Tourism Winnipeg in on Jordan fun

Michael B. Jordan’s quip about Winnipeg on late-night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live! is T-shirt material for the city’s tourism industry.

Kimmel threw questions at the actor earlier this week during a segment called least-Googled questions.

“Does Michael B. Jordan love Winnipeg?” Kimmel asked.

A brief pause and a furrowed brow later, Jordan responded, “I don’t not love Winnipeg.”

Hi @michaelb4jordan! 👋 Thanks for providing us with our next tourism campaign slogan! pic.twitter.com/8J5Ail9mhS

— Tourism Winnipeg (@TourismWPG) March 1, 2023

The clip has garnered thousands of views and more than 100 comments.

Tourism Winnipeg sprang into action, sharing the video on social media and posting a Photoshopped picture of Jordan in a T-shirt that read “I don’t not love Winnipeg.”

“It was fun, it’s light,” said Karen Viveiros, Tourism Winnipeg’s communications director. “It will definitely drive awareness.”

Tourism Winnipeg considered printing and selling the shirt.

“It’s a fun thing to do,” Viveiros said. “(But) you have to know… when to let things die.”

Bringing Jordan to Winnipeg should be the next leg of the campaign, she joked.

Jordan plays Erik Killmonger in the Black Panther movies and boxer Adonis Creed in the Creed franchise, among other cinematic work. He was promoting Creed III on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

“I do not not love the Creed series,” Mayor Scott Gillingham said Thursday. “It’s always great, I think, when people of note and famous people are talking about Winnipeg.”

Manitoba sees roughly $1 million in film production daily. It draws many celebrities and could make the city more prone to pop culture references, Viveiros said.

Winnipeggers latch on to celebrities’ moderate compliments. In 2018, mugs and T-shirts followed an article by Patrick Laine, in which the former Winnipeg Jet wrote “Winnipeg is good” and “my Wi-Fi — it’s sick.”

“We tend to be very self-deprecating as a people, and very humble,” Viveiros said. “We need to start being prepared to be proud of what we have.”

— with files from Joyanne Pursaga

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com

If you value coverage of Manitoba’s arts scene, help us do more.
Your contribution of $10, $25 or more will allow the Free Press to deepen our reporting on theatre, dance, music and galleries while also ensuring the broadest possible audience can access our arts journalism. BECOME AN ARTS JOURNALISM SUPPORTER Click here to learn more about the project.