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Yes, We're Mad About the Skyride Ads
The strongest reaction elicited from our 2026 Minnesota State Fair review crew didn't come from the delicious Apple Fries or the sub-dog-food-quality Pickle Pie. It came when we encountered Google AI advertisements splashed across the cars of the SkyGlider, an unholy vision that beats villainous Big Tech over your head—literally. (In less offensive fashion, the Skyride ads for e.l.f. cosmetics also suck.)
Our friend Justine Jones at MSP Mag channeled her anger over these first-of-their-kind ads into an essay titled "Anyone Else Mad About the Ads on the State Fair Sky Rides?" Jones gets into some history of the Skyride, which we learn was constructed by the Swiss company Von Roll in 1964 and has been owned by local man Don McClure since the early 2000s. We get some mildly sympathetic intel on how the Great Minnesota Get-Together functions financially: The fair is operated by a "de facto state agency," the Minnesota State Agricultural Society, and its operating revenue just keeps pace with inflation. The fair PR team wouldn't say how much Google and e.l.f. spent on their campaigns.
When Jones stops being diplomatic, she gets downright poetic about what the aerial ad pollution does not just to the eyes, but also to the soul behind them. Read the whole essay—it's great. But we'll leave you with a passage that strikes at the ache one endures when a cherished melting pot of Minnesota humanity, a place that feels frozen in time and shared by all who enter, reminds you that the most evil, antisocial companies on Earth make themselves inescapable. Here's Jones:
The tides that alienate us from our own humanity are rising so fast—blimp-like Waymo cars are quietly mapping our city streets; we continue to spoonfeed our own intelligence to chatbots that, in turn, tell us what to eat for dinner; we even lost Salted Nut Rolls to private equity. It’s hard for me to quantify what I feel those Skyride and SkyGlider ads take from us, except to say that they eat ravenously away at our memories; that our world seems locked in a relentless process of dissolution; that the experiences we thought belonged to us, however intangibly, can, in fact, become quite suddenly owned by someone else.
Speaking of World-Destroying Corporate Giants...
Two years ago ProPublica reporter Sharon Lerner authored a longform investigation on when locally headquartered 3M learned it had a forever chemical problem—the late '90s, it turns out. That's when Lake Elmo scientist Kris Hansen showed her 3M bosses that PFOS, which "seemed to be everywhere," were bleeding into the human bloodstream. The higher-ups silenced her for decades.
We're bringing up this old story because: a) forever chemicals remain a massive issue; and b) Lerner appeared last week on ProPublica's newish podcast, Paper Trail, which happens to be hosted by our pal Jessica Lussenhop, to talk about her profile of Hansen. It's a fascinating and maddening deep-dive into the reporter's notebook, and it's a well-earned tribute to a whistleblower who's still struggling with how long it took for that whistle to sound.
"Yeah. I mean, angry at 3M for many of the things that they’ve done," Hansen tells ProPublica. "But also angry at myself for realizing how quickly I accepted a statement about toxicity because it was comfortable for me. Like, it’s a little bit unforgivable."
State Fair Food Reviews Analyzed by New Website
While we'd love to see every hyperscale AI data center trained on, I don't know, curing cancer, we'll offer a tip o' the cap to the rare worthwhile uses of AI we spy in the wild. Like this new website that catalogs Minnesota State Fair food reviews from critics, lets users submit their own reviews, and features pricing, allergy, and wait-time intel.
"Throughout the past week, friends, family, and quite a few redditors have been submitting their reviews to my site which was created to collect real people's reviews on the new fair food," the site's creator writes via Reddit. "After feedback and suggestions, it has expanded to every stand and food, as well as the graveyard of new foods from the past."
The site will return next year, and most accusations of "AI slop" (there have been some) haven't gained much traction; the bots appear to have mostly assisted in presentation, not content. And that content reveals that, among critics (including Racket), the Apple Fries were the best reviewed new food, while the abysmal Surf N' Turf Burger scored the worst averaged-out marks.
When Should the School Year Begin in Minnesota?
After Labor Day, says this lifelong Minnesotan. It's the natural order of things, plus it has been state law for 40+ years.
But not everyone agrees, according to this new story from Elizabeth Shockman at MPR News. For this year and next, due to Labor Day arriving later than usual, lawmakers let school districts decide whether they'd like to get a jump on learning. (Hey, lawmakers: It should also be illegal to disagree with me—just throwing that out there.) Not many did: Just 41 of the state's 300+ districts opted to toy with tradition. And now, despite "overwhelming support" for the status quo, political and education leaders are ready to study the 41 case studies mentioned above.
“In an era that things are always changing, it’s interesting how school calendars haven’t. You just question, like, what’s the research say?” asks Chip Rankin, superintendent for Brainerd Public Schools. We'll find out soon enough.
