Jaunted

When the slogans were presented publicly, the negative blow back was tremendous... "Politics is the killer," said Roger Brooks... whose firm was contracted by Sparks to work on its marketing campaign... Because they will defer to their constituents, politicians make it difficult to come up with anything snappy or unique, Brooks said... "When you try to do something by public consent, you end up with something like 'we're a four-season destination,'... you always end up with something that is watered down when you do branding by public consent."

The slogan that Brooks's firm came up for Sparks was "Festival City." That was supposed to replace the city's well-established "Rail City" nickname, which has a certain ring to it. "Festival City" seems to lack a similar ring, regardless of how "snappy or unique" it ostensibly is. Although all we're doing is repeating the public consensus on a slogan that was supposed to appeal to the public. Maybe there's another way to evaluate public appeals that would lead to a different conclusion.

Listen. It's undeniably true that picking a slogan is really difficult. Panama is overflowing with deals and opportunities for travelers, and their efforts to create a new slogan became a trauma-filled STD-evoking disaster. But there's something a little obnoxious about all this buck passing. Citizens and companies pay tourism boards and politicians who pay advertising firms. The transfer of all that money—tens of thousands of dollars—is supposed to result in something appealing.

It's Nevada. They have gambling, drinking, and whoring. If you can't sell that to tourists you need to find a line of work that doesn't involve selling things to tourists.

[Photo: egg on stilts / Flickr]

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· Tourism Marketing Coverage [Jaunted]