Being shorthanded and having much to do, we don’t have as much fun as we used to in our morning meetings — gotta get out, get to it. But silliness can insinuate itself no matter how brisk and businesslike we are, especially if we try to go a little too fast.
This morning, as he was quickly moving through a list of things he might write about, assuming we achieved consensus on them, Warren mentioned the new "Fabulously Hot" slogan for the Columbia metro area.
Wait, I said — I think you’re confusing this promotional campaign with another one.
Of course, the real challenged faced by the Midlands isn’t communicating a clear, unified sense of place to the rest of the world. For folks who are not here, we are Columbia, the capital of South Carolina. Whether we are in Cayce (slogan: "Lebensraum"), Irmo ("Where Referenda Go to Die") or Richland Northeast ("Halfway to Florence"), folks elsewhere see us as being in Columbia.
The problem is that we can’t get our act together to capitalize upon that, or accomplish much anything else, because of our balkanized system of many tiny, competing governments. As Warren said later in the meeting: Sure, it’s hot — thanks to all the friction between the many little governments.
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History is one of the real reasons to visit Columbia or Charleston, but the politically correct crowd wants to suppress all signs and mention of the American Revolution and Confederacy.
There is also a clique who seeks to divert taxpayer money into their pockets by means of tourism projects they conjur up.
Has there ever been any research showing the economic benefit of marketing campaigns to come up with some benign yet positive slogan?
I mean except for the obvious economic benefit received by the most-likely politically connected marketing consultants?
This is another one of those “tasks” that governments do that they shouldn’t do.
great point about our own deficit grower McConnell and the Hunley boondoggle. in re pc’ers avoiding the revolution that is not the case, not even dittoheads can believe that. the simplistic version once foisted upon us in the name of patriotism is as intellectually dishonest as the Jihadist version of the Koran. stories of the tooth fairy only have relevance to very small children.
the horror of 2 centuries of human bondage and a catastrophic provisional and unsuccessful territorial uprising to try and rationalize it in the name of ‘state’s rights-to enslave others’ should be appropriately noted in museums and textbooks like the Germans handle their two decades of genocide. General Lee said to put away the flags with honor, he would be appalled to see them flying anywhere outside on governmental grounds-unless you were going to give equal recognition to the French, Spanish, English, Denamek Vesey, Stono Rebellion banners. for what it’s worth, before you break out the ‘outsider’ curse, i am proud to have direct ancestors on both sides of my family who served both in the revolution and war between the states.
After all that rambling, george22, are you saying Columbia should not capitalize on its place in history, including the Civil War?
I can think of a lot more history that is important, like our canal and electric power ( a lot of Southern cities led the nation in electrification), the railroad line from Charleston to Columbia, to compete with river barges, steel fabrication (recently second only to Chicago), and more.
I have to agree with Lee that the State should certainly market its historical sites from the Revolutionary War, Civil War, and other periods of history! (And I wasn’t aware of several of those historical points he brought up and will go look them up now.)
Of course I don’t think that that marketing has anything to do with a flag put up on the capital in 60s… and I think that the markers at the all historical sites should be historically accurate (which is decidedly different from one-sided revisionism).
Fabulously Hot = Hideouly Stupid!
I like the slogan, but I think the ad looks too much like a recent Ethan Allen ad…
Unfortunately, I don’t think slogans do much to sell conventions or tourism.
You could tie the slogan to Civil War history. After all, Columbia was famously hot when Sherman burned the city to the ground.
Too bad the Inferno aren’t around to capitalize.
Milly reminds me of a friend I worked with 25 years ago in Tennessee. I was her editor, and I was always trying to get her not to be so down on the place where she worked. She was from New York, and obviously wanted to return there (she’s now with the NYT.)
Even though I didn’t approve of her attitude, she did crack me up with her favorite line for complaining about politics, local culture, what have you in our small part of the Volunteer State:
“It’s not the heat; it’s the stupidity.”
If she works for the NYTimes, then she knows about stupidity. A friend of mine in Manhattan just sent some NYT links to my Blackberry, but it is unlikely I will read them. She ended her email by calling the writers “so stupid!”. You would think a paper with that much revenue could afford some decent columnists.