Cows on Parade in Chicago
Dateline: 08/02/99 (Rev. 02/04/00)Matt's note - unfortunately, the primary Cows on Parade site vanished after the cow display ended, I'm sorry.
Tourism is the world's largest industry so countries, regions, and cities do their best to attract new visitors. This summer, Chicago, Illinois borrowed an idea from the Swiss to promote their city - fiberglass cows.
Last summer, Zurich, Switzerland placed a collection of 815 decorated cows around the city - this novel concept drew one million new visitors. Chicago businessman Peter Hanig saw the cows in Zurich and brought the idea home. He convinced the city of Chicago to bring in cows from the Swiss company that created the Zurich cows.
The city's Department of Cultural Affairs purchased 180 standing cows, 30 reclining cows, and 90 grazing cows that were each white, produced from fiberglass, and weighed approximately 40 pounds each. The city created a contest for local artists to produce a design for a cow. Local businesses bought each cow and a design from an artist or just purchased a blank cow for their own design.
Presently, approximately 260 of the 300 cows have been painted and decorated and are standing, grazing, or lying on the streets of Chicago. The "Cows on Parade" exhibit began on June 15 and will last until October 31. City leaders estimate that by the end of the cows' reign and once they've been auctioned off for charity, they will have brought about $100 million to the city.
Some have complained that the cows are too commercialized. They point cows such as the Give the Lady What She Wants cow in front of Marshall Field's or Limoosine in front of Delaware Cars and Limos as advertisements for the businesses they stand in front of.
The cows are certainly appropriate symbol for Chicago, as not only was the city's growth based on being the stockyard and railroad center of the midwest, but also due to the legend of Mrs. O'Leary's cow that started the Great Fire of 1871. However, Planet Chicowgo wins the prize for most geographic cow.
