Wis. sidelines new slogan, 'Live like you mean it'
UPDATED:
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Department of Tourism has temporarily sidelined the state slogan, "Live like you mean it," as officials ponder its future just months after it was unveiled and then widely mocked.
The phrase and accompanying logo, showing a silhouette figure doing a cartwheel across letters spelling out Wisconsin, are missing from the department's fall ad campaign and its main Web site.
Department of Tourism Secretary Kelli Trumble said the department was reviewing the slogan with the state's new advertising firm, Milwaukee-based Laughlin Constable.
"We're evaluating our work on that and believe me, we're listening to feedback," Trumble said in an interview. "There are those who love it and those who absolutely don't. We know in our business that marketing is subjective."
What's important, she said, is to keep the focus on branding Wisconsin as a place filled with original thinkers and destinations, which will remain a key point in the advertising.
The department had spent $57,000 developing the logo and slogan, which Gov. Jim Doyle said would be used to promote tourism and economic development. Trumble had promised her agency would use them widely.
But when the slogan was unveiled in March, critics blasted the department for using a phrase that had been widely used by motivational speakers, authors and even the liquor company Bacardi in the past. Others made light of the cartwheeling figure.
The logo was developed with the help of market research, with the green in "Wisconsin" signifying the state's natural resources and the red symbolizing its passion and pride.
The review of the slogan comes as another state agency, the Government Accountability Board, is facing derision for launching a new logo that looks similar to the symbol for anarchy. The board paid a design firm $4,900 to create the logo.
This summer, a private tourism lobbying group quietly changed its name after realizing its initials formed a crude acronym. The Wisconsin Tourism Federation group became the Tourism Federation of Wisconsin in July after it was featured on Web sites and blogs poking fun at it.
Oct 2, 2009 at 9:43 a.m.
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How about "Wisconsin- Home to heroes like Ed Gein & Jeffrey Dahmer!"
Oct 2, 2009 at 8:11 a.m.
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Live like you mean it... before the Serial Killers get you.
Oct 2, 2009 at 2:09 a.m.
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Reminds me of all the ad campaigns that Darin Stevens worked on!
Oct 1, 2009 at 10:46 p.m.
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Hey, those design models are not cheap. If they bought a new model every time Mike proposed a pretend project, they may well have had to let Alice go.
Oct 1, 2009 at 9:08 p.m.
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I would have said, "Come stay in Wisconsin for a weekend and you are automatically entered into a drawing to win $57,000." I wonder if Laughlin Constable pitches the same slogan to every product they are asked to come up with a catch phrase for. Similar to Mike Brady in the Brady Bunch Movie when he has the same design model for every project.
Oct 1, 2009 at 7:34 p.m.
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Live like you mean it. NOW!! OR I'LL FIND YOU!!
Oct 1, 2009 at 7:20 p.m.
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Live Like You Mean It.
That is a riveting slogan.......especially at the expense of 57K good thing it was professionally created.
Oct 1, 2009 at 7:11 p.m.
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Because you DON"T mean it?? Maybe with all of that snow on the way, I might not mean it either.
Oct 1, 2009 at 6:28 p.m.
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How about "Four Seasons, give you Four Reasons to visit Wisconsin"....and for that, I will take half of what was paid out....
Oct 1, 2009 at 5:27 p.m.
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The other conflict of the tagline came from a Bacardi ad, but bottom line was that it just didn't resonate with people. Additionally, the "keg stand" logo drew a world of criticism.
Brands make mistakes, too. Who else remembers New Coke and Coke II?
For the cost, it may defy people's ideas or the Hollywood take on ad agencies, but there is (or supposed to be) a significant amount of market research, study, focus groups and analysis that goes into rebranding projects like this. The price for a national-level brand for wide-ranging media use isn't out of line.
Should the agency (http://www.redbrownkle.com) have researched the use of the tagline? Yes. Should Wisconsin have paid $57,000? Yes.
Should Wisconsin have gotten something better. You betcha.
Contests are for unresearched, unprofessional hacks trying to get exposure. Leave branding to professionals.
Oct 1, 2009 at 4:19 p.m.
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WTF.......Was,This,Funny,...RIGHT?
Oct 1, 2009 at 3:36 p.m.
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fool_on_the_hill: LOVE IT!!
Oct 1, 2009 at 3:30 p.m.
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Coca Cola and McDonalds are in a little better fiscal shape than the State of Wisconsin.
Oct 1, 2009 at 3:18 p.m.
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Trademark law depends on "likelihood of confusion". If nobody has used the mark for tourism purposes before and it hasn't become a nationally known service mark, it can be used for two different purposes.
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It really isn't the end of the world to have an advertising pitch flop. I hear both Coca-Cola and McDonald's have bungled campaigns a few times. You put it out there, evaluate, and retool if necessary.
Oct 1, 2009 at 3:09 p.m.
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From the Chicago Tribune-"The presentation listed several active, pending or abandoned federal trademarks covering the term. The most notable is held by Scripps Networks, owner of the Food Network and HGTV. The company registered the phrase in 2001 and used it as the tagline for its Fine Living Network, which focuses on food, drink and travel.
The presentation noted Scripps Networks’ trademark remains active, but the company is no longer using the phrase. If Scripps Networks revived the phrase, it could be get “some considerable exposure” given the company’s extensive media holdings, the marketing firm warned.
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$57,000 for a trademarked slogan with "some considerable exposure" to a potential suite on the matter. It must be a Diamond Jim cronie or perhaps it was approved by his legal council who was licensed to practice law in Wisconsin.
Oct 1, 2009 at 2:35 p.m.
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The contest idea is great...but the State would spend $100,000 on consultants to pick the right (wrong) design from all the entries.
Oct 1, 2009 at 1:50 p.m.
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The Wisconsin quarter is a joke. The "citizens" chose the worst of the three designs available.
Oct 1, 2009 at 1:32 p.m.
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I like the contest idea. Similar to the Wisconsin Quarter, it could put some energy back into our citizens. There is no reason to hire a marketing and advertising firm to come up with a slogan and logo. This should be a project for the citizens of Wisconsin by the citizens of Wisconsin.
Oct 1, 2009 at 1:28 p.m.
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Unfortunately, when the slogan was crudely translated into Elbonian, it unwittingly turned out to mean, "Our women are tainted."
Surprisingly though, it appears that this mis-translation actually drew more Elbonians to WI in 2009 than had visited were here in both of the previous two years!
Oct 1, 2009 at 12:47 p.m.
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I think it would have been a good idea to open it up as a contest. Winner gets a free trip for 4 or something. Sure you would have spent more time and money sorting through all the entries, and I am sure there would be some bogus and crude entries, but in all I am sure it would have cost less than it did to pay a firm or whoever they paid to come up with it. After a slogan was picked, run another contest for the logo. I am sure something just as insightful could have come from anyone of us.
Oct 1, 2009 at 12:44 p.m.
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We spent more than the average wisconsin annual income to come up with a person doing a cartwheel and the phrase"live like you mean it?"
On top of that-we're not even using it now?!?!?
Wow.
I really need to switch careers.
Oct 1, 2009 at 12:41 p.m.
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Some say that "Smell Our Dairy Air" was just too tough an act to follow.
Oct 1, 2009 at 12:29 p.m.
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Why don't you "Help like you mean it" by using that money to give people jobs to plant trees, clean up parks and streets, and to beautify the State so that tourists will WANT to come there. $57,000 may not go very far but it seems as though using it for a slogan and a logo was just down right ignorant.
Oct 1, 2009 at 12:19 p.m.
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You mean "Drive it like you stole it Ricky Bobby". Who had it first
WI or the movie.
Oct 1, 2009 at 12:06 p.m.
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Yeah, but that included the logo.
Oct 1, 2009 at 11:56 a.m.
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$57,000 for "Live like you mean it"? What a waste of money!
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