Canada's best, worst and most confusing city slogans, from the 'Land of Rape and Honey' to 'Be NF'
Cities spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, sometimes millions, to develop and promote taglines like 'There are a number of things to do in Okotoks'
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“Technically Beautiful.” “Great Things Happen Here.” “There are a number of things to do in Okotoks.”
Okotoks aims to capitalize on ridiculed ad ow.ly/SXvP0 http://t.co/VlDdPzVFww
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Calgary Herald (@calgaryherald) October 03, 2015
Cities spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, sometimes millions, to develop and promote taglines like these gems – for Ottawa (it’s since abandoned the slogan), Charlottetown and, of course, Okotoks, Alta., respectively.
Some do work out. Calgary’s “Be Part of the Energy” was rolled out on welcome signs this fall to mostly positive feedback. Other slogans, however, fall strangely flat – or, in the case of Tisdale, Sask., (its old slogan, “Land of Rape and Honey”), sound wildly off-key.
Taglines can be so fraught, in fact, some cities have been ditching them altogether.
This year, Mayor Don Iveson proclaimed “a post-tagline era” and the end of Edmonton’s “City of Champions” slogan. Moncton, N.B., is phasing out its slogan, “Our Tide is Rising.” And David Ferreira, brand manager of Mississauga, Ont., says that city is done too: “We felt that a city can’t express its brand story in a meaningful way in a single tagline.”
With brave towns still making the effort, the National Post asked marketing professors – Alan Middleton of York University and Lindsay Meredith of Simon Fraser University – to weigh in on the offerings.
“Activate Life,” Vernon, B.C.
Meant to highlight the active lifestyles of residents and visitors, and the region’s outdoor activities.
Meredith: “I give them points because they are in a recreational type of community and ‘Activate Life’ beats the hell out of activating death, I guess. But ‘activate’ is pretty general. Does it take me to what that city has to offer, what it stands for?”
Middleton: “Not bad. Positions them as outdoors and energetic. Potentially good for tourism – if not much else.”
“Sunshine State of Mind,” Medicine Hat, Alta.
Used in tourism materials, it reflects the city’s plentiful sunshine and the warmth of its people. The old slogan, “The Gas City,” is still used for city and corporate business.
Meredith: “A feel-good type of thing. They probably get a lot of sunshine — give them credit for that. Other than that, why do I care? What’s it offering me? A lot of other places have sunshine, too. Although you can have a fairly terrorizing effect when you start playing with their old slogan, ‘The Gas City.’”
Middleton: “At worst over-promise, and therefore a joke at best. The only good thing about it, it’s certainly better than ‘The Gas City.’”
“Infinite Horizons,” Regina
Intended to reflect “the momentum of our growing city,” and its optimistic personality. The previous slogan, “I love Regina,” is still used as part of an “internal pride” campaign.
Meredith: “I’ll give them credit for getting rid of ‘I Love Regina.’ And yes, it’s a play on the prairies. It’s big country, it’s a big look. It tries to suggest there are infinite possibilities coming out of that region.”
Middleton: “OK, I get the connection with the ‘big sky’ province, but really – when you can’t make your mind up what you want to be, you go with lines like this. Just like the old ‘Toronto Unlimited,’ this is cop-out slogan strategy No. 1 for those who don’t understand what brands are or even what cities are.”
“Be NF,” Niagara Falls, Ont.
The city calls the slogan an “inspirational message” to residents, with a double meaning — “Be Niagara Falls” and “Be Enough.”
Meredith: “What the hell does it mean? If I’m running around with ‘Be NF’ on my T-shirt, I’m not at all sure my friends are going to know. Or, god forbid, give them five minutes and they’ll come up with something rude. And it has nothing to do with Niagara Falls, by the way. It might work inside the city but the whole idea of a tagline is to communicate to people outside the city.”
Middleton: “Makes ‘Sunshine State of Mind’ almost look OK. Seriously, this is a classically bad example of a slogan for its own sake, written by someone trying to be contemporary but succeeding instead in making Niagara Falls appear laughable.”
“Prepare to be Amazed,” Oshawa, Ont.
Highlights the city as a “progressive and leading edge community.”
Meredith: “Amazed by what? Oshawa does a lot of cars (its former slogan was ‘City in Motion’). I don’t know if it does a lot of ground-shaking innovative stuff. Have you got a reputation for being a Silicon Valley North? For some of the best biomedical production facilities?”
Middleton: “Here we go: cop-out line No. 2. Close in terrible to ‘Infinite Horizons.’ Though compared with ‘Be NF,’ maybe not so awful.”
Interviews have been edited and condensed.
National Post
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