Who do you like? And why? These are two easy questions that seemingly everyone can answer, and they are the premise of one of our most recent contests and events with CITYVIEW magazine — Des Moines’ Most Likeable People.
This fun social networking contest and charity event started out much differently. It was originally Des Moines’ Sexiest People, which was modeled after People magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive” and “Sexiest Woman Alive” articles. For our effort, we chose local people who we thought defined sexy, and we wrote a story explaining why. Brian Duffy also drew some amazing illustrations of each person for this light-hearted and fun feature story. In the six or so years that we did this, the list included locals like former WHO-TV anchor John Bachman, Des Moines Buccaneers GM Nate Teut, former DMPS superintendent Nancy Sebring, local musician Randy Burk, bar owner Frankie Farrell, Johnston Chamber of Commerce director Heather Goodwin, and former Des Moines Register publisher Laura Hollingsworth, among many others.
Our advertising sales manager at the time thought she could pull off an event tied into this, and she did. We invited our selection of Des Moines’ sexiest people to a party where they were honored and received gifts from local businesses. Those in attendance voted for their top selections via applause, and we officially named Des Moines’ Sexiest Man and Des Moines’ Sexiest Woman.
To be honest, it felt a bit awkward for most everyone involved — not as awkward as our Swimsuit Edition unveiling party, but still awkward. This was best summed up when honoree Mike Pace (the lottery, Iowa Realty and this-is-where-you-buy-your-Chevy spokesperson) called to let us know that he would not be able to attend our “sex party.”
So we decided to change it up. Being called sexy may be uncomfortable for some, but who doesn’t want to be called “likeable”? And who doesn’t want to promote a chosen charity? Bingo! We changed the rating process to fall in line with social media platforms, and we used Facebook to have our readers “like” each candidate. The top eight men and the top eight women with the most likes were then invited to a party where they and their chosen charities were honored. It worked immediately, and it continues to be successful.
So who do you like? And why? Take a minute now and visit mostlikeable.dmcityview.com where you can submit names and photos of people you like. Friends. Neighbors. Family members. Co-workers. Anyone you like. And then be sure to follow the link to the Facebook page later and “like” them there, too.
Have a thoughtful Thursday, and thanks for reading.
Shane Goodman
President and Publisher
Big Green Umbrella Media
shane@dmcityview.com
515-953-4822, ext. 305 | 
