Slang-slinging burqueña pumps up fair

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Lynette the burqueña is back this time applying her dead-on imitation of slang heard in Albuquerque--make that Burque--to boost the long-suffering New Mexico State Fair.

She's been hired to bring back crowds and some spunk to the annual event now less than a month away.

She's the web's most famous burquena. Lynette, played by New Mexico native Lauren Poole, is the Web's most famous burqueña by virtue of a YouTube video " (bleep) Burqueños Say " that has reached more than one million views.

Now Expo New Mexico, which manages the fair and fairgrounds, is trying to ride the viral video wave and creating the biggest splash in the history of its ad campaigns.

"We don't have the budget this year that we once had when the economy was better," Expo Media Director Michael Henningsen said. "So we've really had to watch the bottom line and make sure that our money is spent wisely."

Henningsen says the fair used to have up to $750,000 to spend on ads; now it's less than half that.

Expo hired an inexpensive local production team and, of course, Lauren Poole as Lynette carrying her pet piglet Chicharrón because the media director thinks people who attend the fair can relate to her antics.

"They would just let me riff as that character," Poole said.

So far it's gotten positive reviews. It helps that Poole is a fair fan, too.

"My biggest thing is going for the old ladies that make the pies, the petting zoo and the rides," she told KRQE News 13.

In the ads that started airing on TV last week, Lynette gives her ideas to make the fair better this year.

"You can't have a fair without a rodeo, a petting zoo, rides that want to make me throw up, cotton candy, zip line, full-contact jousting," she tells the fair's director. "I want everything, even like a Michael Jackson laser light show."

"We've got that this year," the director responds.

"For reals?" Lynette says with true burqueña inflection.

Henningsen said there's a lot of extra footage of Lynette that they will put on the State Fair website especially if the positive feedback continues.