Not just stars, they have crops, PhDs and gold.

When you see the flag, you see them as stars, but in reality they are very different. Like children from the same parents, they all have different personalities but they share some birthdays (like 4th of July)
In an article on 1bog.org they've done a map of what every state (in US) is good at, or what's the worst thing about it. The actual study was made for the purpose of energy efficiency rating for each state. The smiley you will see in the right upper corner refers to the energy friendly policy of that state.
The hole article is interesting because it's the first step for branding. It's the first analyze of the particularities and exception of each area.
Of course you can not brand a state in a negative top, like:
Alaska - the highest suicide rate (even though is a good market for sedatives)
Illinois as the highest gang memberships. Massachusetts as the state with the highest number of speed tickets. But you can definitely sell it as the leading energy efficient policy.
Mississippi as the #1 obesity state.
About Rhode Island I'm not sure if it's a bad thing the marijuana consumption (for branding purpose). Look at Netherlands example.


West Virginia case I guess is the most amusing - No 1 in toothlessness. And a good slogan to go with this is "don't smileeeee" - and this is how the inhabitants become the saddest people in America ;)
You have to admit this is a very peculiar market. Do you know there are some photo cameras that have a feature "smile" and they will take the picture only when the character in the frame will smile (after pressing the shutter button you can wait seconds before the camera detects the smile and takes the picture). Imagine this product don't have such a success in WV.
BUT THERE ARE SOME GOOD POINTS FOR OTHER STATES:

Wealth:
California. I'm not sure if the economy level and the UFO seeing is connected (we should definitely study the phenomena), but who wouldn't want to move to the promise land?
Or Maryland, who seems to be very "merry" on wealth:
And there are states rich in knowledge and brain:

It's good to know that there is more then fried chicken in Kentucky. Largest amount of gold ...eh? How's that for a fact?
Or the highest level of skepticism in the country. Non-religious people moved to Washington.

I guess it's better to live you to it. Imagine what you can do with this information: