The state's newest pitchmen for tourism are two dweebish office workers who, in video skits available only on the Internet, plot pranks against co-workers who are off vacationing in Nebraska.

The adventures of "Ben & Riley," which debuted a month ago, are an edgy effort by the state tourism division to capture the imagination — and the travel dollar — of younger people who surf YouTube and other Web sites for entertainment and information.

So far, three installments of "Ben & Riley" have drawn mixed reviews from cybersurfers. Some call them an embarrassing waste of taxpayer money. Others praise them as "very funny" and a noble effort to attract today's younger crowd.

"A little silliness never hurt anybody," said one comment posted on YouTube.

Christian Hornbaker, director of the state's Travel and Tourism Division, said the videos were part of a $129,000 venture to boldly go where young people hang out these days: on the Internet.

"It's out-of-the-box thinking, to try and reach out to as many people as possible in this Internet age," he said.

Eighty percent of the cost of the videos and a new Web site — seenebraska.org — was financed by a federal highway grant related to Nebraska's scenic byways program. The rest of the money came from the state lodging tax, which pays for tourism efforts.

Last year, the state debuted 10 Web videos about scenic byways, footage that can be downloaded to an iPod and carried around like a visual tour guide.

"We're just trying to keep up with what the other tourism destinations are doing," said Sarah Baker, marketing director for Nebraska's tourism division.

"Ben & Riley" was this year's addition.

The skits are titled "Bird," "Golf" and "Raft." They involve pranks that Ben and Riley, a pair of coffee-cup-carrying office workers, dream up to play on colleagues who are off watching cranes in Nebraska, playing golf or paddling the Niobrara River.

"So, rumor has it Perry is on vacation this week, watching a bunch of cranes migrate through the Nebraska Sand Hills," Ben tells Riley at the start of "Bird." After their prank goes horribly awry, the 2¼-minute video culminates with a scroll of scenic photos and the pitch: "See more pranks and plan your trip now. www.seenebraska.org."

The videos are an attempt at "viral marketing," Hornbaker said, a modern-day equivalent of word-of-mouth advertising. The idea is to present videos so entertaining that people who spot them will forward them to others via e-mail, thus spreading the messages like a "virus" across the Web at no additional cost.

The ultimate goal, Hornbaker said, is to plant the idea that there are cool things to do in Nebraska and lure people to the Cornhusker State.

As of Friday, he said, the videos had attracted about 16,000 views via YouTube and about 5,000 via seenebraska.org. Those are the only places the videos can be watched.

How many viewers took the next step — logging on to the state's main tourism Web site, visitnebraska.org — was not available, he said.

The state spends about $850,000 a year in lodging tax revenue on tourism promotion.

Hornbaker said the focus remains on traditional forms of advertising and on attracting baby boomers and especially "heritage tourists," those who travel to historical sites and tend to spend more time and money than other kinds of tourists.

Published Tuesday May 27, 2008
'Dude, d'you see Nebraska's tourist ad?'
BY PAUL HAMMEL
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU

LINCOLN
• Contact the writer: 402-473-9584, paul.hammel@owh.com