New York CEO Turns Massive Yooper Blooper Into PR Win

MARQUETTE, MI — You don’t mess with Yoopers. Unfazed by the extreme Upper Peninsula weather and unforgiving geography, they are the hardiest of Michigan’s hardy. Disney’s Paul Bunyan is based on a legend handed down through the generations on the U.P., his brute strength growing with each telling of the lore surrounding the lumberjacks who settled on the U.P. So it’s important to know who you’re dealing with.

A customer service representative of TickPick, an event ticketing company based in New York City, wasn’t mindful of Yoopers’ fierce loyalty when he picked a fight with Kyla Mae Vasseau of Marquette, who pointed out on social media the map of Michigan on the company’s website omitted the Upper Peninsula.

The individual responded on Facebook, “Kyla — we got the important part of Michigan, isn’t that good enough?” and then refused to let it go. (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Detroit Patch, click here to find your local Michigan Patch. Also, like us on Facebook, and if you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

In another comment, TickPick said: “We’re sure the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is a lovely place to live, and I assure you we didn’t intentionally leave it off the map. But seriously, it’s “just a bunch of forests” …”

Sensing a public relations nightmare of Bunyan-sized proportions, company co-founder Brett Goldberg quickly issued a mea culpa, saying the situation had been badly handled and apologizing for the affront. Michigan (and neighboring Wisconsin) would again hold up the U.P. on the TickPick map, he said, and through July 4, the promo code YOOPERS gets a 10 percent discount on tickets.

“To say one of our customer support team members handled the initial outreach improperly would be an understatement,” he wrote in a statement, noting that he was “shocked and appalled” by the employee’s comments.

“I’d like to apologize to the first person who reached out to us and was seriously just trying to help us,” Goldberg wrote. “Now I am sincerely sorry to everyone else who was offended by this.”

To show his sincerity, Goldberg flew to the U.P. and met his critics face to face after one of them challenged him, the Detroit Free Press reported.

“One person who Facebook-commented on my apology said, ‘I deleted my 1-star, I’ll change it to a 5-star rating if you came to the U.P., wore a Stormy Kromer Hat and ate a (Lawry’s Pasty Shop) pasty,” Goldberg told the Free Press. “I thought, ‘That’s exactly what I should do.’ They’re right. That made it very easy for me. Wrote exactly what I should do.”

He quickly became a celebrity.

Goldberg picked up the tab at Marquette's Blackrocks Brewery, later telling the Free Press that he regretted having to leave so quickly but that he plans to return and take in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and other spots his new friends recommended.

“It’d be selfish of me to take another day off (to say),” he told the Free Press. “But 100 percent, I want to take my family back.”

Photo of Pictured Rocks by Upsilon Andromedae via Flickr Commons