Hey, Uruguay, meet the real Montevideo!

Some people might see this video as an ad for a Movistar phone (especially since that’s what it is). I prefer to see it as an ad for one of the greatest communities in Minnesota: Montevideo.

In the ad, released this week, a young man sets out to meet his friend in the capital of Uruguay, but ends up in its western Minnesotan namesake instead, a town, incidentally, that has a long relationship with its southern counterpart with the oddly-pronounced name (see video from Pioneer Public Television).

Hillarity ensues as the young man finds out what I learned when I first visited the community: It’s a great place.

By the way, that’s Patrick Moore, whom I profiled here, who plays the part of the man in Toppers Bar and Grill.

The West Central Tribune identified some of the more than 60 residents who took part in the commercial.

“We came here expecting to find hillbillies and distrusting people and we found just the opposite,” production manager Gabriel Resala in a news release, sounding very much like some Twin Citians.

(h/t: Nancy Yang)

Archive: Montevideo cops in low-speed chase (NewsCut)