Anthony Anthony, left, the chief marketing officer of Connecticut, receives a playful slap in downtown New York Thursday, June 12, 2025, from John Brescio, owner of Lombardi’s Pizza, which claims the title of the first pizzeria in the United States. Brescio was not bothered by Connecticut’s billboard across the street calling Connecticut pizza the best. .
Dan Haar/Hearst Connecticut Media
Anthony Anthony, the state’s chief marketing officer, speaks Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2024 at a press conference at Tweed New Haven Regional Airport to announce that Avelo Airlines will begin service in May 2024 from New Haven to Atlanta; Charlotte, N.C.; Knoxville, Tenn., and Destin / Fort Walton Beach, Fla.
Mark Zaretsky / Hearst Connecticut Media
Anthony Anthony, the man in charge of marketing for the state of Connecticut, arrived in New York’s Nolita neighborhood last June, at the site of a landmark pizza joint to advance an ad campaign. First, he had to face a reality of urban life.
Anthony – yes, it’s his first and last name – and Colin Caplan, the pizza aficionado from New Haven, were set to interview New Yorkers in front of a billboard declaring Connecticut pizza the nation’s best, and New York pies “2nd place.”
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The giant CT Pizza sign on the side of a food market, across Mott Street from the famous Lombardi’s, framed the picture perfectly on that sunny morning. One glitch: A shoeless man lay half asleep on a suitcase directly in front of the billboard.Â
Anthony approached the man as if he were talking with Gov. Ned Lamont, who appointed him the state’s chief marketing officer in early 2023 from his post heading communications in Lamont’s office. Anthony offered, and the man accepted, a $20 bill, a slice of pizza and a cup of coffee.
The man moved elsewhere without incident. Anthony had handled the situation with respect and a minimum of fuss.
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And the New York pizza video worked out nicely, part of a $300,000, yearlong campaign that netted Connecticut a colossal 19 billion “impressions,”or instances when a person sees or hears the message. The campaign, Anthony told me this week, “was wildly successful both financially and in soft measures.”
Anthony, an Avon resident, is exiting state service to hang out a shingle as a marketing and communications consultant. He leaves on Feb. 6 at a crucial time for the tourism and hospitality industry in Connecticut – with recent success including a 2-year state rebrand but not nearly enough money dedicated to the message.Â
That sensitive moment in front of the billboard? “It was a good metaphor for the work we’ve done,” Anthony, 40, said when I reminded him of it.Â
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A turnaround on the cheap
By several measures, tourism numbers are looking up, bolstered by that “Pizza Capital of the United States” campaign and the larger “Make it Here” brand remake that started in the fall of 2023. Surveys show Connecticut’s long battered national image on the rise, placing us in the conversation if not quite yet the coolest destination in the world.Â
Just announced On Dec. 11: The pizza campaign, developed by Anthony’s Office of Statewide Marketing and Tourism and Avon-based Adams & Knight, is a finalist for a prestigious PRWeek advertising award. It’s the only state tourism brand among dozens of finalists in a contest dominated by multinationals such as Coca-Cola, Heinz, General Mills and Verizon.Â
“The biggest thing we’ve done is changed the perceptions of Connecticut,” Anthony told me, “and that could not have been accomplished without the strategic rebrand of the state.”
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The success plays into a broader economic turnaround, with $14 billion in state budget surpluses over the last six years; a hot metro Hartford housing market; recognition for New Haven as a “trending destination” as my colleague Jayden Nguyen reported; and Connecticut actually gaining population (barely).Â
But state spending on tourism marketing is down to $4.5 million this fiscal year, from $12.2 million right after the pandemic. That budget line, always a backdrop debate at the Capitol and in the hundreds of attractions that dot the state, is causing some serious frustration.Â
‘Never a priority’
Critics, especially in the restaurant and hospitality industries, are none too pleased that neighboring states, notably New York, Rhode Island and Maine, far outspend Connecticut. They’re perplexed that Lamont heartily supports the cause, appearing often at attractions and hospitality gatherings such as the Connecticut Restaurant Association’s CRAZIES Awards on Dec. 8 and the launch of the Connecticut Hallmark Movie Trail 13 months ago.Â
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And yet, that shrinking spend hurts like a hangnail and rankles people whose small museums, sports amenities and of course, restaurants, count on the state getting the word out.Â
“It’s never a priority,” Scott Dolch, president of the Connecticut Restaurant Association, said of the diminished outlay for advertising the state. “Tourism is an afterthought in a lot of ways. It’s like ‘Oh, it’s nice to have.’”Â
It should matter more than that, Dolch continued.Â
The ribbon cutting at The Foundry, a new restaurant on the 20th floor of the Hartford Steam Boiler building, during a ribbon cutting event on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in downtown Hartford. Seen here from left to right are, Scott Dolch, President and CEO of the Connecticut Restaurant Association, Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam, Hartford Steam Boiler President and CEO Greg Barats, Executive Chef Jeffrey Lizotte, Chef Jesse Powers and Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz.
Jim Michaud/Hearst Connecticut Media
“We’re most people’s first jobs before they go on to another career. Or maybe they stay in hospitality.”
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Still, he credited the outgoing marketing chief as a creative force. “Anthony was a thought leader in this,” Dolch told me. “His vision, his drive, his understanding of our industry… obviously helps tremendously.”
The old joke about people walking into a bar tells part of the story. Cronin & Co., the Glastonbury ad firm working on the Make it Here slogan and campaign, asked Anthony about the state when the project began.Â
“If Connecticut walked into a bar,” the account executive asked, “who would they be?”
“We’re not the most beautiful person in the room. We’re not a glamorous starlet or a model,” he recalled saying. “But once you start talking to them, you realize how absolutely fascinating and funny they are… And by the by the end of the night you’ve fallen in love.”
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‘A strategy that people feel’
Like falling in love, it’s not so simple, the long and endless slog of making the state into a desired destination.Â
“I wanted our state to stop apologizing for who we are and start celebrating it,” Gov. Ned Lamont said in a written statement about Anthony. “From his first day in my office in 2021, Anthony took that message to heart and turned it into a strategy that people feel every day – through creativity, vision, and pride.”
As for the declining spending, Anthony speaks like a true PR guy. He said the issue had nothing to do with his decision to go out on his own.
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“We have asked for resources to greater support the governor’s economic development initiatives,” he said, “and we have made do with what we are given.”
Hamza Angawi, left, visiting New York from Saudi Arabia, happened by the location where a Connecticut delegation was handing out pizza and interviewing passers-by about the state’s billboard calling Connecticut pizza the best on Thursday, June 12, 2025. Â Anthony Anthony, right, Connecticut’s marketing chief, offered up an exchange and taste test.Â
Dan Haar/Hearst Connecticut Media
Even state Sen. Ryan Fazio, R-Greenwich, a Republican candidate for governor who generally favors a tight state purse, was heard recently calling for more spending on tourism (along with looser regulations on small hospitality businesses, of course). “I don’t have an exact figure but I think it should be increased,” Fazio told me Tuesday.
The state Department of Economic and Community development, where the tourism office lives, touts all sorts of numbers showing a strong return on investment – including what it says is $1.25 billion in state sales and lodging tax revenue from tourism and hospitality. Critics including UConn economist Fred V. Carstensen say those numbers are bloated by including small local purchases by state residents.Â
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Anthony, to the end, sticks to the big picture and the broad goal of focusing on how residents and visitors feel about Connecticut.Â
“Everyone in this state needs to stop looking at tourism as people coming from Nebraska and Florida and Chicago to spend a week,” he said, “and recognize that travel and tourism is more about quality of life.”
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