I was recently walking down the sidewalk beside the Lynx light rail, and I spotted some colorful banners alongside the tracks. They added a festive touch, I thought. Then I read them.
They said: “Create” and “Splurge” and “Thrive” and my favorite, “Groove.” I found this interesting. It had the flowery fragrance of promotional marketing. I checked. Yep, the banners are part of a rebranding effort for South End.
Now I am not against promotional marketing. In an advertising-based industry, how could I be?
But somehow, being ordered to “Thrive” reminded me of a time, years ago, when the walls of the Observer building sprouted posters ordering us all to “Work Smarter.” As if we would all slap our heads in recognition of our heretofore obvious stupidity and decide to mend our ways.
The promotional effort, courtesy of Charlotte Center City Partners, the nonprofit uptown advocacy group that also serves South End, partnered with a South End design/branding firm. They want to highlight “the brand attributes of the district” which they believe to be shopping (hence, “splurge”), residential (“thrive”), art galleries and creative businesses (“create”), and hospitality and nightlife (“groove”).
I called three creative types from around town, plus my college-aged daughter and asked if anyone ever says “groove” any more. “I don’t think so,” said commercial film producer Peggie Porter. “I hear people say ‘groovy’ in a sort of ironic way.”
“No one I know says groove,” said the text my daughter sent from Chapel Hill.
Filmmaker Dorne Pentes, though, said he still sometimes hears people say “groove.”
What about the rest of the banners and being ordered to “create”?
“I think that would be the least likely thing to make me feel creative,” Porter said. “It sounds like Chamber of Commerce stuff to me,” Pentes said.
As one branding/marketing expert told me (no name because this person needs business and can’t afford to tick people off), “In the brand world, what things ARE is most important, not what you say they are. That’s what we focus on with clients. Get them away from slogans.”
Colorful banners? Nice touch. Sloganeering in a supposedly “artsy” part of the city? Not so creative.
A note about spacing: For some reason blogger.com today refuses to put spaces between the paragraphs. I tried deleting the old spaces, putting in new “enter” lines, the works. No luck. Does anyone have any solutions for this?