By Peter Cellino | Publisher, The Charlotte Mercury
If you squint hard enough, you can almost see the common sense… running for the state line.
Monday night’s Council meeting included many serious moments — public safety concerns, transit violence, a community begging for answers. And then Item 24 arrived: CATS Marketing and Communications Services — a one-year contract with Sherry Matthews Group, renewable up to three more years, with a total estimated expenditure of $3.4 million.
Three point four million dollars.
For marketing.
Not rail safety.
Not on-staff communications capacity.
Not rider experience.
Marketing.
And not even local marketing talent — but an outfit hundreds of miles away, tasked with explaining Charlotte to Charlotteans at a time when the LYNX system is facing the most intense scrutiny in years.
If you listen closely, you can hear every creative agency in Mecklenburg County muttering, “Are you kidding me?”
The Real Problem Isn’t the Vendor. It’s the Premise.
Nothing in the council documents suggests wrongdoing. Staff followed procurement rules. The vendor responded to an RFP. Eighteen firms competed. That’s all normal.
What isn’t normal — or defensible — is the apparent belief that a $3.4 million external marketing spend is the smartest lever CATS can pull right now.
At a moment when:
- riders are questioning safety,
- police are increasing patrols,
- the public is still reeling from a fatal LYNX stabbing,
- and the city is preparing to transition CATS to a new MPTA governance structure,
…our move is to hire an out-of-state agency to run branding?
You don’t fix a trust deficit with a brochure.
You don’t fix a perception crisis with a tagline.
You don’t fix a culture problem with a photoshoot.
This is communication theater. And Charlotte residents can smell the smoke machine.
(For readers wanting ongoing reporting on LYNX safety issues, our coverage continues here: https://cltmercury.com/charlotte-light-rail-stabbing/.)
Here’s the Part Where Common Sense Packs Its Bags
There are five painfully obvious alternatives — all offering more value, more authenticity, and infinitely more connection to the people who actually ride this system:
1. Use college students from Queens, UNCC, CPCC.
Charlotte is home to thousands of communications, design, journalism, and marketing students begging for real-world work. They know the city. They ride transit. They can create content that doesn’t sound like it was written during a connecting flight at DFW.
2. Partner with local creatives.
Our city is bursting with filmmakers, photographers, animators, muralists, storytellers, strategists. They can make actual human work — the kind that isn’t assembled by plugging “urban mobility” into a brand-voice matrix.
3. Partner with local ad shops.
Hawthorne. BooneOakley. Mythic. Wray Ward.
Pick three. Pay them one-third the cost. They’d fight to out-create one another, and Charlotte would get a campaign that reflects Charlotte — not a one-size-fits-Austin template.
4. Use the internal staff you already have.
CATS, CDOT, CMPD, Aviation, Solid Waste, Housing & Neighborhood Services — every city department has communications staff. If the city truly lacks marketing cohesion, that’s a leadership problem, not a procurement problem.
5. Stop paying out-of-state firms to learn Charlotte from scratch.
We are tired of watching agencies parachute in, interview 12 people, drive down Tryon once, and present a “Charlotte Brand Narrative” that includes the phrase “vibrant and diverse.”
We know. We live here. Write something new.
If You Don’t Fix the Product, the Marketing Is Just Perfume
CATS doesn’t need better marketing.
CATS needs credibility.
The best public-sector communications strategy on earth is simple and free:
Do the thing you said you’d do.
Tell the truth when you didn’t.
Fix the problem instead of the narrative.
Until the system is safe, clean, reliable, and governed with clarity, no campaign — not even a $3.4 million one — is going to change hearts or ridership numbers.
Marketing isn’t a substitute for operational performance.
It’s the receipt you hand people once the job is done.
We are not there yet.
Charlotte Deserves Better Than a Consultant-Led Imagination
I don’t blame the vendor.
I blame the city’s habit of outsourcing problems instead of solving them.
We are a city full of talent — civic, creative, entrepreneurial. But judging from this contract, you’d think our greatest local export is the belief that someone else must know better.
We don’t lack ability.
We lack faith in our ability.
And that’s what this $3.4 million really buys:
A reminder that government is most comfortable reaching for a wallet instead of a whiteboard.
About the Author
Peter Cellino is the Publisher of The Charlotte Mercury. He believes in local journalism, local creativity, and local common sense. All three are cheaper than out-of-state consulting contracts.
The Charlotte Mercury is dedicated to thoughtful, privacy-first journalism for a more brilliant Charlotte.
Explore More:
- 🗳️ Elections: 2025 Election Hub
- 🏛️ City Council: Full Coverage
- 🚆 Transit & Mobility: CATS & Light Rail Reporting
- 🏠 Housing: Zoning, Affordability & Development
- 📬 Subscribe: Get our weekly newsletter
About Us:
Mercury Local Network:
© 2025 The Charlotte Mercury. All rights reserved.
#LastToFirst | #WeAreCharlotte