OK, voting closed at noon today in our First Annual Sound Politics State Of Washington Slogan contest. You'll recall that the announcement of the state's new tourism slogan, "Say WA," was recounted in this SP post last week, which also sought better alternatives. A follow-up post announced 11 finalist entries, and sought votes from SP readers naming their one top pick.
I've weeded out all the double votes (including one from Stefan, posing as Dean Logan); and more or less counted the rest pretty accurately. And the winner is.........
....by a landslide...."WaTF," from roosi trey. (Gold medal).
Second place: "Come, visit, vote," from Jeff B. (Silver medal).
Third Place: "Washington - deep in the heart of taxes," from ERNurse. (Bronze medal).
Tie for fourth place (I think it's a tie, that is if I counted exactly right, and I'm pretty darn sure I did, probably, just don't worry about it OK?): "WA - where Lenin still stands," from Republican (by default); and "Washington State - the gift God wrapped in green," from Cicero. (Tin medal).
So, obviously, our winning entry isn't really a new tourism slogan, per say. But as the organizer of the contest, I'd like to call to the attention of state tourism officials a much better tourism slogan alternative than "SayWA," namely our fourth-place co-Tin Medal winner, "Washington state - the gift God wrapped in green." Yes of course the "G" word might be a teeny-weeny problem for all those secular humanists in state government, but really, does this one not capture the essence of our state's glory? Never mind that it's cribbed from a cheesy Christmas song - it's got legs.
If, even though the contest is over, you still want to add thoughts to this comment string regarding a state slogan that you think is better still, allow me to humbly suggest you please make it a TOURISM slogan, and just for fun, one that might actually be taken seriously. Who knows what could happen?
Posted by Matt Rosenberg at March 20, 2006 01:30 PM | Email ThisThe bottom-line in tourism is to get folks with money to come on leave it. And if it takes SayWa OR WaTF to get them here, it matters not.
Why haven't the local papers picked up your contest Matt? Maybe you ought to send them an OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE with the results!!
We came up with a better Slogan for FREE than they spent almost what $500k on??
But, like number uno, how many more recounts will there be? WaTF?
Posted by: roosi trey on March 20, 2006 02:58 PMI'd like to donate all of my winnings to Stefan's legal funds to help get Dean Logan to disclose any and all documents that are the rightful property of the citizens of Washington, so that we can find out once and for all what happened in 2004 and make sure it does not happen again.
Posted by: Jeff B. on March 20, 2006 03:20 PM"Washington is for Losers"
I will call Dean Logan to get this done, so I can get on his list of things not important enough in his view to give a S about (just above I am sure the release of the Voter database logs)!
Ahmmmm
By the way I do have to admit, as I had posted, WATF was my first choice, and 2nd, 3rd and literally all of the great slogans were grrrreeaattt!
I just have to have some additional recount money so I can become a democrap!
I promise when I get it I will put it in the same secured account that the 1.6 Billion excess state's income this year was put into.
I really promise I will save it for a rainy day. I did see a dribble today in fact, real early morning....
I was trying to be non-political....And it was pretty funny - in a dry sort of way....(still makes me chuckle...)
But - after further review,...I can understand why WaTF did so well....(snicker...chuckle...heh....and it's non-political too!)
Posted by: Deborah on March 20, 2006 07:03 PMNot bad...
But how about---
"Washington---We're Canada on Prozac!!
Posted by: Mr. Cynical on March 20, 2006 07:22 PMWA is a lot like France. Progressive, high taxes, arrogant elitist snobs (well in Seattle anyway) and Seattle has at least the aspirations for the Paris Metro system, even if it's one hundred years late, overpriced, poorly planned, etc. And many in Olympia are pachuli drenched moonbats barely concealing the odor of their unshowered bodies. Their is a useless tower that has become the cities icon, just like Paris. And don't forget all of the hauteur surrounding coffee.
No wonder so many Seattle libs act like the stuck up French.
Posted by: Jeff B. on March 20, 2006 08:51 PMI was thinking more along the lines of the Jesus Christ Superstar movie , "What's The Fuss?" Were you all perhaps thinking something different?
Posted by: roosi trey on March 21, 2006 07:31 AMI don't know about the effectiveness of slogans anyway. I lived in Florida for quite some time where tourism was the number one industry, and I couldn't tell you what the slogan was during that time. People don't travel somewhere because of a slogan.
I do know that the most popular tourism related T-shirt down there read "Why do they call it Tourist Season if you can't shoot them?"
Posted by: Palouse on March 21, 2006 09:36 AM"Every vote should count (even the ones I'm about to create.)"
"We need to count every vote (over and over until I win.)"
How much does a manual recount cost? I'm sure my party will pay for it.
Oh, wait. Never mind. I'm not a Democrat.
And since this is Washington state we can keep voting after the polls are closed (if we have a key to the storage room in the basement) as long as it's not a military voter. So I want to enter a second vote, but this time for "C'est WA". That really c'est's it all.
Posted by: Republican (by default) on March 21, 2006 09:39 AMAnyway, thanks for the nod.
Okay, I have to get back to work, saving the world one life at a time...
Posted by: ERNurse on March 21, 2006 05:09 PM