They Love Slogans : Municipalities Begin Making a Name for Themselves Through New, Ringing Mottos

When the Bakersfield Californian found out recently that the local convention bureau was quietly casting about for a city slogan, the newspaper appealed to readers to help out.

They responded with more than 100 suggestions, including such irreverent offerings as, “Bakersfield: Where Lizards Go to Die,” “Bakersfield: Closer to the Beach Than Mojave,” and “Bakersfield: Everybody’s Gotta Be Somewhere.”

Gary Fischer, the bureau’s marketing director, said he prefers one of the more positive nominees--”Bakersfield: Someplace Special”--but no final decision has been made.

Some people may joke about civic slogans, but Fischer and his counterparts in the industry take them seriously.

“To market a city these days, you have to create an image, an identity,” Fischer said. “And to do that you need a slogan.”

More and more, themes with a Madison-Avenue ring are popping up, such as Riverside’s “A Nice Surprise,” Irvine’s “Another Day in Paradise” and Palm Springs’ “P.S. I Love You,” which inspired a motel owner in Borrego Springs to print up “B.S. I Love You” bumper stickers.

B.S. aside, slogans have moved beyond the earthier days of “Tan Your Hide in Oceanside,” “Where the Hell is Norco?” (which resulted in a church campaign, “God Knows Where Norco Is”) and Bellflower’s “21 Churches, No Jails.”

Oceanside, working on its fourth slogan in the past quarter of a century, recently hired a public relations firm that came up with “The Wave of Tomorrow,” after admitting defeat on No. 3, “I Love Oceanside” (how were they to know that New York thought of it first?).

Norco goes by “Acres and Acres of Neighbors,” but the Chamber of Commerce admits that some non-Norcans still don’t know where the city is. (It’s in Riverside County, north of Corona--hence the name.) Or even what it is.

“We did a survey and one fellow thought Norco was a filling station,” Chamber President Elmer Arnold said.

Bellflower is now “The Friendly City,” or rather “The Friendly City” as a new billboard and T-shirt campaign puts it. City historian Muriel MacGregor pointed out, however, that the “21 Churches, No Jails” slogan hasn’t really been invalidated.

“We have more churches, but still no jails,” she said. “No cemeteries, either.”

States are jumping into the fray, too.

New Jersey Gov. Thomas H. Kean recently launched a $3-million tourism push with the theme, “New Jersey and you, perfect together” (a campaign that caused Kean some embarrassment when it was disclosed that he had bought a vacation home in New York).

“You hear more slogans these days because everyone’s stepped up their promotional campaigns,” said Daryl Eagle of Davis, Johnson, Mogul & Colombatto, the advertising agency handling the “L.A.’s the Place” account. “Americans are traveling more, both for vacation and for business. In the case of cities, many have built convention centers and they feel a pressure to fill them. Cities must be merchandised like other products.”

So similar is the merchandising, in fact, that “P.S. I Love You” has been adopted by Progresso Soup. Palm Springs couldn’t very well gripe, though. After all, the city borrowed the line from a song title.

Speaking of duplication, Redwood City and Carpinteria are still arguing over who should hold rightful title to “World’s Safest Beach.”

And Irvine’s “Another Day in Paradise” could confuse folks in the the Northern California city of Paradise. But the Chamber of Commerce there said it has no plans to retaliate by adopting the slogan, “Another Day in Irvine.”

The big boys, such as New York and Los Angeles, once stood aloof from sloganeering until they found that they couldn’t take tourism for granted. “L.A.’s the Place” was ordered placed on all new city stationery in 1981--after City Councilman Ernani Bernardi was assured that the remaining blank stock would be used up first.

Slogans can make a difference, said Robert Pierce, a geography professor at the State University of New York at Cortland.

“When Pittsburgh decided to combat its negative image, they came up with ‘Pittsburgh’s the One,’ and in direct response to the publicity they received, they had a big increase in inquiries from firms considering relocating to the city,” Pierce said, adding that the city had also made gains in fighting pollution.

Pittsburgh isn’t the only city to mask hurt feelings with a boastful claim.

Two years ago, Pierce released a study ranking Fresno 277th (and last) in the country in terms of desirable places to live.

The city then hired a former circus publicist to head its visitors bureau and came up with a modest new slogan, “So Much So Close,” implying that even if you didn’t have fun in Fresno, you might get lucky nearby.

“We had to do something after we got zapped,” said the new director, Stan Lockridge.

San Diego’s seemingly nervy claim as “America’s Finest City” was also born of trauma when the Republicans changed their mind about holding their 1972 national convention there.

“America’s Finest City Week” is now an annual event and the phrase has been proudly adopted by some businesses, including America’s Finest Self-Storage.

One holdout from the trend toward slick mottos is Calipatria, which calls itself the “Lowest-Down City in the Western Hemisphere.” Katy Lopez, who works in the city clerk’s office in the tiny San Diego County town, explained: “We have a flag pole 184 feet high in front of City Hall. The flag flies at sea level.”

Then there’s Newport Beach, which has no slogan at all.

Thus, for the moment anyway, Bakersfield and Newport Beach have at least one thing in common.