And I thought Scots were supposed to be frugal
Even though I work in the industry, there’s an evil little part of me that loves it when advertisers screw up completely – as long as they’re not my clients. My latest bout of marcom schaudenfreude came from an article in the Daily Register that was sent to me by a friend of mine.
Apparently, the Scottish Tourism Board has just launched a new campaign to rebrand and re-invigorate Scotland to the rest of the world. So, after six months, and about $250,000 they launched the fruits of their efforts:
Welcome to Scotland.
It’s catchy, right? Makes you feel welcome, lets you know that you’re in Scotland. What more could you ask for?
From the Daily Record:
The new artwork was unveiled at Glasgow airport yesterday by culture minister Linda Fabiani. She said: “These images will welcome people arriving in our country and Scots coming home, giving everyone a taste and glimpse of the very best of Scotland.
“This is not about developing flashy slogans.
“This is about showing what a modern, vibrant and successful country Scotland is.”
But Labour MSP Jackie Baillie said: “If ‘Welcome to Scotland’ is the best Alex Salmond’s government can come up with, it shows the SNP have had an imagination bypass. It sounds more like a road sign at Berwick than it does a must-do invitation to visit our country.”
Maybe they should have gotten the agency that developed the slogan for Biggar, Saskatchewan:
“New York is Big, but this is Biggar.”
If nothing else, this is the kind of slogan that should make Ottawans not feel so bad about the $200,000 “Technically Beautiful” fiasco from a few years back.
Not only is the slogan brilliant, but the artwork puts me in mind of “do not enter” sign. Did anyone actually show this to ordinary people to see what they made of it?