According to a story in Friday's New York Times, Ohio's capital city is struggling through an identity crisis.
According to a story in Friday's New York Times, Ohio's capital city is struggling through an identity crisis.
In an effort to project an image that captures the essence of all that is Columbus, a task force of community leaders is attempting to enlist the creative energies of its people to come up with a slogan that encapsulates the city's qualities and style of life. According to the article, they've been at it for three years, so far, and counting. The task force is expected to identify a finalist sometime next year.
The problem isn't that Columbus has a bad image.
It has The Ohio State University, and its vast campus, where I briefly toiled in my youth.
It has one of the best zoos in the nation and celebrity zookeeper Jack Hanna, who, just last week, warded off a grizzly bear attack in Montana.
It's the birthplace of Wendy's, a restaurant chain responsible for at least 10 percent of my body fat.
The problem is that on a national scale, it has no image at all. If you live in faraway points to the east or west, if you think of Columbus, you probably think of ... Ohio, and its belts of corn and rust.
But at least Columbus, unlike Charleston, is big enough to worry about a national reputation.
In the past, ad agencies have been paid to come up with a half-dozen slogans attempting to brand the city by connecting it to a distinctive and memorable image. The hired guns haven't shot blanks, but neither have they hit bull's-eyes with slogans like "Surprise, It's Columbus," or "There's No Better Place."
It's a far cry from such memorable slogans as the Las Vegas tagline "What Happens Here Stays Here," Dallas' "Live Large, Think Big," or even the slogan of the border city of Eagle Pass, Texas, with its "Where Yee-Haw Meets Ole."
As a public service to the fabled Omaha on the Olentangy, I offer the following branding slogans to, if nothing else, make the task force come up with something better, fast:
Columbus: Come One, Come Mall!
We've Got Bland Recognition!
According to a story in Friday's New York Times, Ohio's capital city is struggling through an identity crisis.
In an effort to project an image that captures the essence of all that is Columbus, a task force of community leaders is attempting to enlist the creative energies of its people to come up with a slogan that encapsulates the city's qualities and style of life. According to the article, they've been at it for three years, so far, and counting. The task force is expected to identify a finalist sometime next year.
The problem isn't that Columbus has a bad image.
It has The Ohio State University, and its vast campus, where I briefly toiled in my youth.
It has one of the best zoos in the nation and celebrity zookeeper Jack Hanna, who, just last week, warded off a grizzly bear attack in Montana.
It's the birthplace of Wendy's, a restaurant chain responsible for at least 10 percent of my body fat.
The problem is that on a national scale, it has no image at all. If you live in faraway points to the east or west, if you think of Columbus, you probably think of ... Ohio, and its belts of corn and rust.
But at least Columbus, unlike Charleston, is big enough to worry about a national reputation.
In the past, ad agencies have been paid to come up with a half-dozen slogans attempting to brand the city by connecting it to a distinctive and memorable image. The hired guns haven't shot blanks, but neither have they hit bull's-eyes with slogans like "Surprise, It's Columbus," or "There's No Better Place."
It's a far cry from such memorable slogans as the Las Vegas tagline "What Happens Here Stays Here," Dallas' "Live Large, Think Big," or even the slogan of the border city of Eagle Pass, Texas, with its "Where Yee-Haw Meets Ole."
As a public service to the fabled Omaha on the Olentangy, I offer the following branding slogans to, if nothing else, make the task force come up with something better, fast:
Columbus: Come One, Come Mall!
We've Got Bland Recognition!
Life in the Past Lane
What Happens in Columbus?
Columbus: Flat Out Fun
The Big Cheesy
Where Rust Belt Meets Corn Belt
Columbus: 100,000 West Virginians Can't Be Wrong
