Spirited Away

[plonq]

Our province has decided to re-brand itself in order to entice more businesses and tourists into spending money here.  After careful consideration, the government decided to give a skip to all of the local ad agencies and hired a group out of New York to do the re-branding process.  There were a few initial snags when they had to keep pointing out Manitoba on a map, and explain that people really do live north of Minnesota.  Eventually the ad firm got the idea, though, and after almost 5 minutes of intense thought, they slapped together two random words and came up with a generic picture with swooshy things and fireworks in it.

What two words did they mash together?

spirited energy

(Note the edgy use of all lower-case lettering.)

That just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?  So does sour vomit after a night of drinking, and it leaves about the same taste behind.  Others may disagree, but I think it is f**king lame.


Here is the picture that you will greet you when you go to the spirited energy website.  It's a glassy-eyed girl wearing an ugly necklace cleverly overlaid with a swooshy ribbon.  Oh ya, and there's fireworks in the background.  That says it all, doesn't it?  No other place in the world has vapid girls, ribbons and fireworks!

I suppose it becomes a question of which demographic you are hoping to attract with your new brand.  To me this picture says, "Visit Manitoba.  Come for the soulless-eyed wenches and fireworks, stay for the clever slogan stolen from a Japanese soft drink."

spirited energy

It does have a very Engrish sound to it, doesn't it?  Maybe we can attract the anime crowd with it.

Here is another image, this time lifted directly from the CTV site (rather, hot-linked to their site.  If the image disappears, or is replaced by a goatse picture - an improvement, IMO - then you know why).  This time it's the lame slogan with a generic background of angular blue things.

Depending who you ask, we paid anywhere from $600,000 to over $1.6 million for them to design this atrocity.

I suppose at the base of it, what bothers me the most about this is that none of it says anything about our province.  This is generic crap, probably lifted out of the ad firm's archives for when they had a quick one-off job they needed to get out of the way.  This says nothing about who we are, or where we are.  It is awkward to say and conveys no concrete meaning.

I don't mind living here, but this city and province can be very frustrating and incorrigible sometimes.  I've come up with my own slogan and design (which took me 5 minutes, and way less than $600K).



Needs a bit of touch-up here and there, but I think this works - even if it lacks a certain spirited energy.

Comments

[dronon.livejournal.com]

Hey, you should post this to the Winnipeg community or one of those sites that have those photoshop contests. It's too good a rant not to share!

[amarafox.livejournal.com]

Funky stripes don't say Manitoba to me :P

I dont understand why abstract colours are used for something like this. Why not, you know, show photos of, say, Manitoba.

[elynne.livejournal.com]

Why not, you know, show photos of, say, Manitoba.

That would require the ad agency to either 1. find some pictures of Manitoba (research) or 2. send someone to take photos of Manitoba. Come to think of it, they may have tried #2, but after coming back with pictures of cows and no clear idea of where exactly the cows were, they settled for abstract swooshy things.

[pierrekrahn.livejournal.com]

Well said!

Mind if I print this off and pass it around the office?

[plonq.livejournal.com]

Be my guest.

[farlo.livejournal.com]

Hilarious! XD

[furahi.livejournal.com]

I got a different front page, a guy with blue rainbows.... one of which seems to be stabbing him =P

[dakhun.livejournal.com]

"Spirited Energy" would be a good slogan for a power plant, maybe. :-P
I was pretty sure that's what it would be.

The ad looks like a Canada Day advert that they recycled. :-P

I dunno... Advertise the polar bears in Churchill. Or the fact that you can boast the easiest stretch of the trans-Canada to drive on in the whole country (it being straight and divided through the whole province). ;-)

[dakhun.livejournal.com]

There's three images that come up randomly if you keep reloading. The third one has a 60's look to it. Very modern! ;-)

[fetlock.livejournal.com]

They droped the Ball on this one... But Manitoba is my home and I find it very Welcomeing to all that visit. I am sad to hear such unpleasent things come from our own goverment, along with the own put-downs of people that live here.

I do agree that they should of done something better for a way to get people into this place.

[kfops.livejournal.com]

I think the most ingenious part of the ad campaign is that you can drop any word into it, and it still works. You could almost sell it over and over again!

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

Maybe the slogan is a veiled reference to ethanol?

[deffox]

Seeing the white lines through the name made me thing of the trans-Canada. You'll have to show me that stretch of it.

[deffox]

Yeah, that slogan does sound rather generic for the money paid.

They should use your version. :-P A little humour makes things more memorable.

And Minnesota is already cold. I've seen a daytime high of -30C once, and don't really need to see it again.