First Baltimore, now
Jersey. Why do
the places I love most dearly have identity issues? I’m surprised I didn’t hear about this one sooner — the State of
New Jersey actually created a Call to Action contest to get folks to submit
their slogan suggestions online. Over 6,000 suggestions were received; now the results will be reviewed and
finalists selected in the next few weeks.
I can only imagine some of those entries — this contest pushed the door wide-open for more Jersey bashing, of
course. But this is a last resort effort for the state, after they decided at the 11th hour to pull the plug on
adopting “New Jersey: We’ll win you over.” Branding firm Lippincott Mercer was paid $260,000 for that winner slogan,
and it was killed right before it went public.
Personally, I think the already retired “NJ & You: Perfect Together” was just that — a familiar phrase that
worked fine for years. And Garden State too, regardless of the “lack of green” everyone jokes about, causes no real
damage, does it? Laugh all you want — Jersey is used to the ridicule by now. It will be interesting to see if these
branding antics actually generate a decent slogan or just another round of jokes.