A slogan with swagger.Byline: The Register-Guard Edward R. Murrow Noun 1. Edward R. Murrow - United States broadcast journalist remembered for his reports from London during World War II (1908-1965) Edward Roscoe Murrow, Murrow warned against mistaking slogans for solutions. Sometimes that advice is easily followed: No one would mistake the city of Eugene's slogan - "World's Greatest City of the Arts and Outdoors" - as a solution to anything. It's grandiose grandiose /gran·di·ose/ (gran´de-os?) in psychiatry, pertaining to exaggerated belief or claims of one's importance or identity, often manifested by delusions of great wealth, power, or fame. , awkward and manifestly untrue all at the same time. No doubt, Eugene is a great city of the arts. Or at least pretty good. It's also a great city for people who love the outdoors. Put them together, and you have quite a combination. But the truly great don't thump their chests or dance in the end zone. They let their qualities speak for themselves. Robb Hankins persuaded the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce, the Eugene City Council and others to embrace the slogan during his stint as manager of the Hult Center. Hankins has moved on to Canton, Ohio Canton is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Stark CountyGR6. The municipality is located in northeastern Ohio and is situated on the Nimishillen Creek, approximately 24 miles (38 km) south of Akron[4] , which is known as "Ohio's Golf Capital," a far more convincing slogan than Eugene's "World's Greatest City, Etc.," claim. Hankins' departure left Eugene's slogan without its most energetic promoter, or perhaps its only promoter, and now some who adopted the slogan are edging away from it. No one need put a lot of effort into burying the slogan. One good thing about bad slogans is that they sink under their own weight. Effort is wasted in keeping them alive, not in making them disappear. "Eugene: World's Greatest City of the Arts and Outdoors" will be heard or seen less and less as reams of letterhead are used and not replaced, reader boards are refur- bished and Web sites are redesigned. It was never a catchy slogan, and slogans that aren't catchy - well, they don't catch on, and one day they're forgotten. Nor need Eugene be embarrassed for having adopted a clinker clink·er n. 1. The incombustible residue, fused into an irregular lump, that remains after the combustion of coal. 2. A partially vitrified brick or a mass of bricks fused together. 3. of a slogan. It happens all the time. In fact, bad slogans are more common than good ones. Seattle is hurriedly retreating from its "Metronatural" slogan, which sounds like a nudist club or a new kind of gay lifestyle - not that there's anything wrong with that. Washington state's current slogan is the meaningless "SayWA!" Both of these were the products of six-figure contracts with public relations public relations, activities and policies used to create public interest in a person, idea, product, institution, or business establishment. By its nature, public relations is devoted to serving particular interests by presenting them to the public in the most and marketing consultants. At least Eugene didn't pay for its flat tire. It's hard to capture the essence of any city, and especially Eugene, in a phrase that people can read on a bumper sticker bumper sticker n. A sticker bearing a printed message for display on a vehicle's bumper. bumper sticker n → Aufkleber m without tailgating Tailgating The action of a broker or advisor purchasing or selling a security for his or her client(s) and then immediately making the same transaction in his or her own account. . Eugene could live up to the claim of being "The Paris of the Southern Willamette Valley The Willamette Valley (pronounced [wɪˈlæ.mɪt], with the accent on the second syllable) is the region in northwest Oregon in the United States that surrounds the Willamette River as it proceeds northward from its ," but that's not aiming very high. "Eugene: No Slogan Fits" would be truthful, but unexciting. "World's Greatest" anything is too full of swagger - a chip on the municipal shoulder. Given the odds that efforts to invent a good slogan for a city or place will fail, perhaps the best course is to forget about having one. Or perhaps the best slogans are the ones that arise naturally. No marketing consultant came up with the idea of calling New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. "The Big Apple," or Rome "The Eternal City." So who was it who first called Eugene "Track City, U.S.A."? Now, that has a nice ring to it. |
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