The latest marketing effort to revive Ohio's economy implores businesses to bring the company, the capital and the family to the "State of Perfect Balance."

The private, nonprofit Ohio Business Development Coalition is spending $2 million in state money to place targeted ads roughly twice a month in one of the world's most respected and widely circulated daily business news publications.

Ohio wants "C-level" executives -- top decision makers like chief executives and chief financial officers -- to view the state as a place where they don't have to sacrifice their personal well-being for the bottom-line. And living the good life doesn't mean recalibrating business expectations, the ads say.

"I've felt the shift in attitude," said Ed Burghard, a Procter & Gamble Co. marketing director who is working for the coalition through June 2009. "I haven't gone out to measure it at all, but I can feel it and that's a very good sign."

The state has a tough sales job. Its economic numbers continue to stagnant, and the unemployment rate is higher than the national average.

The campaign also stresses a large, skilled work force, but Ohio is in the bottom tier of states when it comes to the percentage of residents with a bachelor's degree.

The Wall Street Journal is owned by Dow Jones, which recently agreed to be acquired by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

(This version CORRECTS Burghard's title)