By Greg Bump
WisBusiness.com
The much-maligned “Live Like You Mean It” slogan unveiled in March as the new brand for the state’s tourism effort is absent from a fall TV ad that debuted this month.
The “Originality Rules” platform that was also developed as part of the branding work is not featured in the spot.
Department of Tourism Marketing and Communications Director Janet DesChenes said it was a “creative decision” not to use the slogan or logo.
“It is the state logo and theme line, but at Tourism we decided the fall spot wasn’t the right place for it,” DesChenes said. “We had some other priorities. We needed to get travelwisconsin.com across.”
The new ad, titled “Super Leaf,” begins with a man excitedly entering his home.
“Honey?” he shouts before charging up the stairs. He finds his wife in the bedroom, where he shows her a leaf that has turned to fall colors.
She gasps. “Let’s go,” she says as they both run out of the room.
“It’s fall in Wisconsin and time to cut loose,” says a voice-over as Wisconsin fall scenes flash on the screen. The BoDeans song “Closer to Free” plays in the background as the voice-over urges watchers to visit travelwisconsin.com, and the Web address appears on the screen.
“And have some fun out there,” the narrator says.
No other brand, slogan or logo appears in the commercial.
The Tourism Department spent $251,306 to create the “Live Like You Mean It” slogan and logo, including costs like research and branding for the “Originality Rules” platform, according to records obtained by WisPolitics.com earlier this year.
This spring, a Tourism official said the logo and slogan may change in varying degrees in the future. But the “Originality Rules” platform derived from the work would be in place for the indefinite future.
The logo, a figure doing a cartwheel, and slogan still appear on the department’s agency Web site.
