Unbound Edition - St. Lou Is ...

Since no one else has dared to take it on, I will broach the subject that has been on some of our minds this week: St. Lou is … All Within Reach

It’s the new “brand” presented by the Convention & Visitors Commission, which includes an accompanying logo and campaign with headlines such as:

Yes, it’s awful. All within reach? Within reach of what? Chicago? Kansas City? What is the “all” representing? All is a big word for only having three letters. It’s not even original – two other obscure U.S. cities use the same tagline. (And did some copywriter get lazy with those last two headlines or what?)

However, I do not want to use this opportunity to be negative, or to make fun of St. Louis. That has been done already on this site and, frankly, it annoys me. I love this city. I live here for a reason.

No, I will simply offer my own suggestion, inspired both by comments on StlToday.com and on a previous blog entry on this site.

It is a play on the “Show Me State,” it implores visitors to come and see what we have to offer and it suggests that we actually have something to show – which we do.

St. Louis needs to stop apologizing for not having Broadway or Central Park. Why are we not embracing and appreciating the things that we do have? Why would we want to have Broadway or Central Park?

I’ll admit, St. Louis needs some work. It isn’t New York or LA, but I don’t want it to be. That’s why I’m here. But it does have a lot of great things going for it. Let’s start showing people that instead of hiding behind some meaningless tagline.

What if you have short arms?
written by nonplussed, October 25, 2007 04:36 PM

I agree with you, Michele. "St. Lou is ... All Within Reach" is so disappointing. I don't know what's more sad - how bad the new tagline is or that it's slightly better than the former tagline, "Hello, My Name is St. Louis."

Um, hi. These taglines paint the same picture of St. Louis as the rejected wallflower who just wants a friend. They reek of insecurity.

In reality, The Fabulous Fox Theater really is fabulous and awesomely ornate. Jerry Seinfeld once joked when he performed here, “You know, usually I like to play in places with a bit more gold.? Our Fox really is gold, Jerry. Gold!

The America•s Center is a huge convention center that has everything one might want in a convention center. Huge speaking rooms. Small meeting rooms. Lots of chairs, etc. The halls are not lined with Slurpee machines and hotdog heaters.

The Boat House is part of our Forest Park which, incidentally, is bigger than Central Park.

The Boulevard would be like L.A. without the paparazzi if L.A. were a paparazzi-less small, glorified strip mall.

I wish St. Louis would stop trying to be something else and for once just be what it is: a wonderful city that is fun to live in and fun to visit.

f**king awful
written by josemocha, October 25, 2007 10:13 PM

OK, time to get real. "It's all within reach." This is a LOUD, PUBLIC declaration that NOTHING is in St. Louis. The Convention and Visitors Bureau is meant to ATTRACT people...not tell them to GO ELSEWHERE for good stuff. Let's be really honest about HOW BAD this is.

Michele is right. This campaign markets the NEGATIVE a St. Louis. All the things that are NOT here. "Let us show you" is a statement of pride, of our ability, of what IS here. It turns the equation around...says "give us a chance to show our best." What would that include? Oh, the best lyric opera in the nation. A park 1 acre larger than Central Park (thank for degrading it CVC!). A top 3 medical school. One of the top 2 symphonies in the country...and a top 2 zoo...and a top 10 art museum...and...and....

We have the world's biggest brewery. The world's biggest architecture firm. The word's biggest PR agency. The inventors of the jet engine. The mappers of the western territories...AND the human genome. The inventors of Panera Bread. And the home of Build-A-Bear.

Screw the CVC. They've done more damage than they can imagine. The citizenry of STL should sue them for misrepresentation.

Sad. Bad. Pitiful.

St. Louis. Let us show you.

It's modern. It takes away the "show me" arrogance. It asks for a chance to show what is right and real. It invites people in, doesn't send them away. Better work...and for free.

Brava Michele. Shame for CVC.

this is so bad
written by bryan, October 29, 2007 05:16 PM

I'm a little late in the game here, but this tagline is so bad it's unbelievable. Besides all of the reasons you mention, the cutesy word play is terrible.

Branding cities or regions rarely works out, IMO. There's too much group think and branding by committee consensus, so everything always seems to get watered down or derailed.

There was an interesting conversation about the project on the local NPR station. Click the "listen" button at the top:

http://publicbroadcasting.net/kwmu/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1171286&sectionID=1

The new identity is of course tied to the Arch, which as Randy mentions, is so tired and overhyped it's sad. My guess is nobody will pay much attention to this tag anyway.

"Where the mullet meets the river"
written by bryan, October 29, 2007 05:22 PM

Would have been a much better tag. I love STL, but I still might buy the shirt.

http://stl-style.com/tshirts6.html

stop using the arch
written by Damp Duvet, November 14, 2007 01:26 PM

I'm so sick of the arch being used in every branding effort. Enough already! People may come to see it, but it's not our defining characteristic. I may go see the huge ball of yarn in Dubuque, but should the city brand reflect this attraction? What's worse, the nod to the arch in this execution graphically suggests a dying city. Just as the Nike Swoosh is upward motion, ascension, this drooping arch plummets St. Louis into obsolescence.

My marketing kids could do better. Will do better. I'm assigning this tomorrow.