N.J. gains from looking bad on TV

 When the fourth season of HBO's Boardwalk Empire launches Sunday, viewers will watch as the credits again open with politician-cum-gangster Nucky Thompson (played by Steve Buscemi) silently surveying Atlantic City's beach as he smokes a cigarette and bottles of illegal rye whiskey wash up at his feet.

But even though the work of historical fiction takes place chiefly in the resort town that the Atlantic County treasurer (Enoch "Nucky" Johnson in real life) controlled throughout the Prohibition era, not one grain of sand or one drop of ocean water was actually captured on video in New Jersey.

Deeming it more economically feasible to set the scene using digital effects than to re-create a historically accurate section of the Boardwalk in Asbury Park, as had been discussed, Boardwalk Empire's producers have shot every frame inside a Brooklyn, N.Y., studio.

But that hasn't stopped officials who look after New Jersey's film, tourism, and employment interests from lavishly promoting the series and actively pursuing others that may not immediately appear to present the Garden State in the best light.

As Steven Gorelick, executive director of the New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission, said of Boardwalk Empire, "It's very good exposure for New Jersey. It's the kind of marketing you can't get through ads."

Ideally, every New Jersey-focused production would directly benefit the economy with drawn-out production schedules. But shows about New Jersey gangsters or tacky Shore-goers bring eyeballs and interest even when shot out of state.

"If anything, HBO put us in the spotlight, which is every PR person's dream," said Katie Dougherty, director of public relations for Caesars Entertainment for the Atlantic City region.

With the help of the Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Authority (ACCVA), many of the city's tourist amenities unveiled Prohibition-themed promotions when the series debuted. The Atlantic City Rail Line wrapped itself in advertisements and Resorts Casino Hotel spent two years branding itself with motifs from the era. But it was Caesars that earned its place as HBO's exclusive partner.

With a license to use copyrighted assets for one year, the casino resort went so far as to redesign its gaming chips, loyalty gaming cards, and key cards, establish an interactive social-media campaign, mount a lighted 25- by 40-foot sign, create related hotel packages, e-mail notices to millions of subscribers, and play the trailer on guest room and casino-floor TV monitors in its properties across the United States.

That's in addition to literally rolling out the red carpet for the entire cast (save Buscemi, who was ill) for the screening of the series premiere, and transforming the One Atlantic catering space into an elegant, historically accurate speakeasy - complete with Model Ts borrowed from an antique car museum - to entertain 600 VIPs afterward.

Managers say some event hosts still come in looking to book 1920s-themed affairs.

ACCVA's director of tourism, Heather Colache, noted that a few establishments have never ended their Boardwalk Empire initiatives. The ACCVA's own website still devotes space to tie-in content, and the Knife & Fork restaurant proclaims on its website, "Nucky ate here. Shouldn't you?"

The Atlantic City Historical Museum maintains a robust virtual exhibition called "Nucky's Empire: The Prohibition Years." The Great American Trolley Co. runs a weekly "Roaring 20s" tour.

It doesn't seem to matter to tourists or tourism boosters that the fictional Thompson is at best a flagrant bootlegger and a pay-to-play politician and at worst a double-crossing murderer.

Similarly, seven years after the hit HBO series The Sopranos went dark, a weekly bus tour still shuttles fans around the gangland that fictitious mobster Tony Soprano ruled.

Visitors also gawk at the Seaside Heights Jersey Shore house where MTV reality star Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi and her often-inebriated friends spent summers, and the wait time outside the Hoboken bakery owned by TLC's stubborn Cake Boss, Buddy Valastro, often exceeds 90 minutes.

Gorelick doesn't agree with suggestions that viewers of Boardwalk Empire or The Sopranos might be led to believe organized criminals run amok in New Jersey, or that shameless shows like Jersey Shore or The Real Housewives of New Jersey reinforce negative stereotypes. But even if they do, he said, municipalities that agree to work with them often end up laughing all the way to the bank.

Jersey Shore, he acknowledged, "doesn't portray the New Jersey Shore as ideally as you'd like it to be portrayed. But I believe that show resulted in a 20 to 30 percent increase in business to Seaside Heights."