Creative, Promotions, Uncategorized • March 18th, 2009

Slammin’ the slogan

by Chris Lato

Mama always said, if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. So…how do I put this…

Judging by the reaction in the blogosphere, (I’m a little late to the party, nice to see ya!) there is one thing that Democrats and Republicans can agree on: the new Wisconsin Tourism logo and slogan, for which the state plunked down some $50K, isn’t exactly setting the world on fire. That’s probably putting it mildly.

Others say the slogan, ‘live like you mean it,’ was pinched from a Bacardi Rum campaign. Others have trademarked the slogan as well and there may be legal action as a result.

Yikes. Is this really what the state was going for? (And when I first saw the logo I thought the guy depicted doing the handstand was actually falling out of a tree stand.)

I wasn’t consulted, but here’s my two cents anyway. Why not develop a few really good logos/slogans, and have Wisconsinites vote on their favorite? Either let agencies develop or open it up to a contest for any Wisconsin resident and get state marketing/PR agencies to work with the state on picking the winner.  

It would have been a lot of good PR for the tourism department:  it’s fun, builds some suspense, generates buzz, gets residents involved and doesn’t leave the world with a puzzled look when the final version is unveiled.

Instead, the Tourism Department is left looking hapless with this unveiling. What a lost opportunity.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 at 11:17 am and is filed under Creative, Promotions, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.