Actually, I’d rather not ‘SayWA,’ thanks
‘Spokane. Near Nature. Near Perfect” suddenly doesn’t seem nearly so dumb.
Never thought I’d hear myself saying that. But our lame civic slogan is Shakespearean verse compared with Washington’s monumentally awful new tourism trademark – “SayWA.”
According to a news report, 18 months of marketing research and input from a 32-member “brand development task force” went into dreaming up a catchphrase designed to lure tourists to Washington.
And this is the best they could do?
“SayWA – This is the noise happy muscles make,” states a caption on the Experience Washington Web site.
I think somebody slipped LSD into the Washington State Tourism Office drinking water.
America has produced many memorable slogans over the years. KFC’s “Finger-lickin’ good!” for example. AT&T’s “Reach out and touch someone.”
But SayWA? It sounds like a new auto from Daewoo.
Just about everybody has the same reaction. “Say huh?”
A $442,000 SayWA ad campaign is scheduled for spring, targeting the affluent 35- to-55-year-old crowd.
Gov. Chris GregWA should put a stop to this March madness.
SayWA got me moving to the Spokane Convention & Visitors Bureau on Wednesday. I dropped in to apologize for all the snide things I’ve written about “Spokane. Near Nature. Near Perfect.”
Pam Scott, the bureau flack, was gracious. She gave me promotional pins and – best of all – a green SayWA T-shirt.
That’ll be a collector’s item someday. Like six months from now, when SayWA bombs bigger than Jenny McCarthy’s “Dirty Love” movie.
Scott told me I needed to watch an explanatory DVD to understand the cleverness of SayWA.
No, thanks. If you need a video to explain a five-letter slogan, the slogan ain’t worth dog spit.
As clunky as it is, nobody needs an instruction manual for “Spokane. Near Nature. Near Perfect.”
It simply means that Spokane misses the mark – but not by much.
I like Spokane Valley’s slogan: “Meth, Malls & More.”
No need for guesswork there.
Too bad the state tourism people are such dullards. They could have kept their basic idea, but centered the campaign on Washington’s new anti-bestiality law. It was enacted after an Enumclaw dude died after having carnal knowledge with a horse.
Which would make the catchphrase: “SayWHOA.”
A co-worker suggested that Idaho could copy us and adopt YoHO as its state brand.
Idaho can’t use YoHO. That’s already the official slogan of the East Sprague Hookers League.
Creating a promotional slogan shouldn’t be so complicated. All you have to do is come up with something easy to understand that consumers can connect with.
My pal Jim Cranford wrote 20 state tourism slogans in a half-hour, and some of them are even usable.
“Welcome to WA-mart,” for example. And “Holy WAcomole!”
Scandal is Spokane’s biggest tourist attraction.
We had the Mayor Jim West sleazefest. We had a visiting federal judge caught serving himself a subpoena.
Allegedly.
More recently, we had a city firefighter who photographed his firehouse sex with a 16-year-old girl. Not to mention the detectives who advised the firefighter to get rid of the evidence.
Because of all this, Cranford has created a slogan that really captures the identity of our city. I hope it makes it on the next pin Scott hands out:
“Spokane: Will Blunders Never Cease?”