New Jersey’s next tourism slogan: “The nation’s gay wedding chapel.”

New Jersey could become the nation’s gay wedding chapel should the state’s highest court rule in favor of same-sex marriages, adversaries on the issue agree.

Two points about this:

• Massachusetts this market could have BEEN YOURS!!! (“The Massachusetts court decision made little impact nationally because the state has a law barring out-of-state couples from wedding there if their marriages would not be recognized in their home states.”) Our tourism dollars will be stolen by friggin’ Jersey City!
• A bit wordy, but it’s still much better than METRONATURAL.

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Asleep at the wheel in Seattle

Apparently Nike and Starbucks have sucked up all the marketing expertise in the Northwest US. The complete inability to find a qualified marketing professional is the only explanation I have for both the recently canceled Washington state tourism slogan of “SayWA” and the newly unveiled and soon to be canceled Seattle tourism slogan, “Metronatural.” Best quote from the story:

“How do you use that in a sentence? ‘Welcome to Metronatural.’ … It’s an airport where you can buy organic bananas.” — Seattle street cart vendor Kenny Telasco.

Y’know guys, you might want to ask Mr. Telasco for a few pointers next week when you’re looking for Metronatural’s replacement The Seattle Convention & Visitor’s Bureau launched this turkey over the weekend after taking 16 months and spending $200K to come up with it. While I have not yet determined the name of the agency behind this slogan, I would not be surprised to find out if it was an arm of Haliburton.

Wait … actual reporting at work … from Metronatural.com (hard to believe that domain wasn’t already in use):

SCVB led Seattle’s brand development initiative over the course of more than year, drawing critical input and support from a broad-based steering committee comprised of representatives from the City of Seattle, Port of Seattle, local hotels, airlines, attractions, restaurants, cultural organizations, SCVB members and many other travel industry stakeholders. Seattle-based branding and advertising firm EXCLAIM served as the creative partner and introduced the metronatural logo and brand concept.

If Metronatural was the winner, I’d love to see the losers. Key question: What the hell was in the coffee they were drinking when they OK’d this one?