DISCOURAGING WORD GREETS MTA SLOGAN.

Byline: Tony Knight Daily News Staff Writer

"Travel Smart - Take Metro."

Huh?

Despite a consultant's finding that its new slogan is "obscure and unclear," the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will launch a major ad blitz this month using the tag.

The $700,000 advertising campaign is aimed at increasing bus ridership, which hit a new low last year, and at getting riders to think of buses, as well as rail, as part of the "Metro" system, MTA officials said.

"This is a high-energy campaign that will be using this (slogan) as well as some other themes," said Andrea Greene, MTA spokeswoman.

However, a consultant paid $21,000 to get the reaction of "focus groups" of both riders and nonriders last month found the "Travel Smart - Take Metro" slogan came across as negative or confusing to a majority of the 58 people queried.

One of the main problems is the Spanish version of the slogan, "Viajeros Astutos Viajan Metro."

That Spanish slogan comes across as confusing at best, or at worst an insult to the reader's intelligence, according to the report by the marketing consulting firm Facts Consolidated.

"You're saying we're stupid for not using Metro," one focus group member said.

"It doesn't make sense. So, if I go on it, I'm smart?" responded another.

The consultant's report also found that many Latino focus group members were confused by the term "Metro," thinking that it referred only to trains and not to buses.

"To get to the Metro, you have to take the bus because you have to take it to the station," one group member responded.

The favorite slogan of the focus groups was, "We Take You There," the consultant's report said.

Among the other slogans tested from Jan. 6-11 were: "We Keep L.A. Moving," "Moving Forward . . . Moving Better," "Metro. Let's Get There Together" and "Make Time in Your Life."

"It's a matter of record that we did the research, and we did a good job," said Jewell Alderton, president of Facts Consolidated. "And we submitted a report to the MTA, and it's their prerogative to use what they want. I don't make decisions for them."

MTA advertising director Warren Morris said he decided to keep the "Travel Smart - Take Metro," slogan because he believed it will work.

"That slogan got the kind of responses that we were looking for," Morris said. "It got responses that were provocative, thought-provoking and had the power to change people's perceptions."

In addition to billboards and other ads, the slogan will be plastered on 1,700 buses.

MTA board members who called for the communications plan last year said something needs to be done to improve the MTA's image with the bus-riding public as well as with local, state and federal governments.

However, at least one board member Friday expressed doubts about going forward with the "Travel Smart - Take Metro" slogan.

"Maybe we jumped the gun," said Vivian Bonzo, county Supervisor Gloria Molina's representative on the board. "This is a bit of a concern."

Bonzo is chairwoman of the board's 6-month-old public relations and marketing ad hoc committee, which has been working to improve the MTA's image.

As a Latina who is fluent in Spanish, Bonzo said she had heard that the new slogan when translated could be misconstrued by some immigrants, people who could be expected to be bus riders.

REJECTED SLOGANS

Here are other slogans considered by the MTA:

Metro. Let's Get There Together.

We Keep L.A. Moving.

Moving Forward . . . Moving Better.

We Take You There.

Make Time in Your Life.

CAPTION(S):

CHART

Box REJECTED SLOGANS (see text)