Drexel Spot on High Yields Gets Low Ratings in Vidalia

A brokerage firm has apologized to this little Mississippi River town for a commercial depicting it as a rundown, dusty hamlet.

Steven Anreder, spokesman for Drexel Burnham Lambert, said Wednesday that there was “was no intention to embarrass or cause any ill will” to the 6,000 residents of Vidalia.

“Obviously we’re very proud of our association with them,” he said.

Anreder added that the TV commercial is no longer being shown except on certain cable outlets and there are no plans to use it again.

The commercial tells how Drexel’s high-yield bonds helped rescue a hydroelectic project planned for Vidalia. But residents complained that Vidalia was depicted as looking like a depressed hill community, with a decaying town hall, an aging movie theater and dirt roads.

“They didn’t think how it was going to affect Vidalia,” said Mayor Sam Randazzo. “The image of Vidalia was wrong. They showed the wrong city. It was a city that was old . . . . We don’t have any dirt streets.

“They were very apologetic and I’m sure they will correct it.”

The spot was filmed in Hartford, Ark., near Fort Smith, 300 miles northeast of Vidalia. And folks there aren’t very happy with the commercial either.

Film crews posed bearded men on the sidewalk playing dominoes and used footage of an old theater in another town.

“It just did not depict how our town actually looked,” said Mayor Norma Michael. “It made Hartford look like a poverty town in the 1930s. It made Hartford look like something it isn’t. It made us look like real backwoods hillbillies.”