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Company poo-poos the U.P. with map omission

Bathroom spray blunder

The Upper Peninsula is missing on this map of the United States, courtesy of the popular toilet spray company Poo-Pourri. The company said it has corrected the map. (Photo courtesy of Peter Dompierre)

This story has been updated to include a new quote from the company.

MARQUETTE — It’s happened again.

Recently the Today show on NBC displayed a map, courtesy of the toilet spray company Poo-Pourri, that left a gaping hole north of Wisconsin. Poo-Pourri was the subject of the feature.

The gaping hole? You guessed it: the Upper Peninsula.

Former Negaunee Mayor Peter Dompierre saw the show and took a snapshot of the offending map.

“The Upper Peninsula holds some historical significance in this country,” said Dompierre, who noted the region is known for its iron ore and companies such as Starbucks that have connections to the U.P.

“It’s very disappointing to see people be geographically challenged, or you can’t look at Google maps and see that you’ve missed an entire third of the state of Michigan,” Dompierre said.

He reached out to Poo-Pourri.

Dompierre received a humorously worded email reply from Lisa Manz, the company’s brand and public relations director.

“You caught us with our pants down … we realize we did something crappy leaving out Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in our 2013 Founders video,” Manz wrote. “Since then, we have corrected the map in every campaign like our Giant Poo Tour to accurately represent the Upper Peninsula. To right our wrong, we are working to bring the Giant Poo to the Upper Peninsula in Spring/Summer 2020.

The company issued an update after press time on Friday.

“We want to show our appreciation to our Poo Pals and invite anyone with a mailing address within the Upper Peninsula to reach out to our customer team by December 1st (questions@poopourri.com and 972-818-8200 to receive some Poo-Pourri on us,”

Dompierre had sent a politely worded email to Poo-Pourri that read: “I would like to thank you for your email and help in correcting this mistake and at the same time invite you to come to see the beautiful and incredible place that we in the UP call God’s country! Please feel free to contact me if I can assist you with places to visit and see in this amazing place that was left off your map!”

The geographical gaffe of leaving out the U.P. wasn’t the first time this mistake has happened.

Earlier this year, Mountain Dew mislabeled the U.P. on its DEWnited States map. In the company’s 50 states campaign that involved marketing bottles from all the states, including Michigan, a map showed Wisconsin and Michigan having distinct color patterns, as would be expected.

However, it also showed Wisconsin’s green-and-white pattern engulfing the U.P.; the Lower Peninsula got red all to itself.

Mountain Dew later created a special U.P. label, with the unique bottles given away at a special “Mountain Dew Upper Peninsula Bottle Reveal” in August at the Upper Peninsula Supply Co. in downtown Marquette.

At the exhibit at the Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center at Northern Michigan University titled “The 51st State”? is a section depicting a sampling of maps with the U.P. omitted. For example, one map delineates the U.P. but doesn’t label it as part of Michigan.

The Today show video can be seen in a short story dated Nov. 7 on today.com.

Christie Bleck can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 250.

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