A while back I wrote about the lame new tagline created for the city of Atlanta: "Every Day Is An Opening Day" (more about this in a minute). Tim Nudd at the AdFreak blog is also keeping the world up to date on the slew of other cities and states reaching for the holy grail - a slogan that will draw millions of tourists to their hotels, restaurants and attractions (Indiana, Long Island, Utah, New Jersey, Baltimore). Here's a quick roundup:
Having wisely decided that “Enjoy Indiana” really ain’t that good after all, the state’s tourism wizards are asking for some help. They’ve set up a section of their Web site to solicit ideas from the public ... [these include] “Indiana. Number 1 in 50.” “Water is to fish as Indiana is to vacations.” “Visit Indiana and enter a state of euphoria.” “Visit Indiana: The state of four seasons.” “Indulge in Indiana.” “Join the IN crowd.” “Indiana. We’ll jump through hoops for you!” And our personal favorite: “Indiana!?”
Newsday columnist Ellis Henican recently challenged his readers to come up with a slogan for Long Island. As far as we know, Long Island doesn’t have an official motto. Nor is its tourism office looking for one. But that hasn’t stopped Henican’s readers from offering a few ... “Long Island: What’s it to you?" “Long Island: Yeah, we’re better than you!” And “Long Island: Do it here and your mother will know.”
Utah is looking for a new state slogan and thought it had found one—but ditched the idea when it realized it was too similar to Colorado’s “Enter a higher state.” ... “‘Enter a higher state’ was something like where we wanted to go, but that won’t be it,” says an official ... Over the years the state has used lines like “The friendly state,” “Land of color,” “Utah the unique,” “A pretty, great state” and “The greatest snow on Earth.” In recent ads it’s been using, simply, “Utah!”
New Jersey has selected its new advertising slogan ... “New Jersey. Come see for yourself.” The winner was chosen after a public vote. Among our readers’ inspired contributions: “New Jersey. What smells like feet?” “New Jersey. Oooh, livin’ on a prayer.” And one from Rob Mortimer that could be used as a follow-up to the one chosen: “New Jersey: Now d’ya see?”
It’s Baltimore’s turn to flail wildly in search of new positioning ... Landor Associates is on board for a repositioning, now that taglines like “Baltimore is better” and “Baltimore. Believe” have fallen on deaf ears ... A former mayor once painted “The city that reads” on park benches, but vandals, referring to the high rate of unwanted pregnancy in town, changed it to “The city that breeds" ...
By the way, in case you were wondering, I thought I'd check out what's opening today, February 2nd, in Atlanta, where every day is an opening day. I went to the Brand Atlanta website and there's a box on the top left headed "Opening Today" in bright red, bold letters-- the first three items listed are a "Rainforest Adventures" performance at the Center for Puppetry Arts (although according to Atlanta.net, it actually opened on January 5th), a performance of the play "Charley's Aunt" at Marietta's Theatre in the Square (it opened on January 18th), and there is a mixed media showing of Alejandro Aguilera's "Yards of Drawings" at the Ty Stokes Gallery (it would seem, according to Atlanta.net, that it opened on January 27th).
Tags: marketing, tourism, taglines
