'Jersey Doesn't Stink' website defends state

It stinks like a refinery. It's covered in concrete. It's populated by guidos and mafia dons, obnoxious housewives and terrifying drivers. And its only landmarks are the exits on the turnpike.

At least, that's what the haters would have you believe.

Deserved or not, making fun of New Jersey is practically an American tradition. And a crop of recent TV shows that revel in Garden State stereotypes, such as MTV's Jersey Shore and Bravo's Real Housewives of New Jersey, hasn't helped matters.

But now, some in the so-called Armpit of America are fighting back with "Jersey Doesn't Stink" - that's the name of a month-old campaign that aims to dispel the "Dirty Jersey" stereotype. Its centerpiece is jerseydoesntstink.com, a website that features videos of impassioned New Jerseyans standing up for their state; form letters protesting Jersey Shore, Real Housewives of New Jersey, and the Style Network's Jerseylicious; and a "digital fight kit" that includes T-shirt iron-ons, fliers, and picket signs that read, "We Smell Better Than You Think."

The site has drawn a growing legion of fans on Facebook and Twitter. Started by New Jersey-based auto insurance-company High Point, it boasts a slew of corporate sponsors, including DARE New Jersey and the Jersey Shore Partnership.

The campaign is touted on three billboards: one on the Atlantic City Expressway, another on Route 287, and a third on a notoriously dismal area of the New Jersey Turnpike near Newark International Airport.

Still, the campaign might be facing a bit of an uphill battle.

"But . . . it does stink," Mike DeCaro, 28, of South Philadelphia, said with a laugh upon hearing of the campaign. He's an EMT who says his ambulance is regularly cut off by drivers sporting Garden State plates.

But Gerry Wilson, High Point's chief executive officer, is undaunted.

He says his company just figured it was about time someone stood up to silence the haters.

A Michigan transplant who moved with his wife and kids to New Jersey 10 years ago, Wilson said he wasn't a fan of the state upon his arrival.

"My primary thought was that the whole state looks like the turnpike around Newark Airport," he said. "But you get three miles away from that area, and it's beautiful."

Wilson isn't out to promote his company - New Jersey, he said, is the "star of the show."

And people are taking notice.