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| Anchorage's official catchword is "Big Wild Life." This is a parody that was featured on TV. |
Branding Communities As Tourist Destinations
If you're interested in tourism and look around, you'll notice that, in many places, some effort has been made to promote locations through a mysterious process called "branding." For example, at the time of this post, the official Mexico tourism website features several slogans on it that somebody has come up with. In Mexico, one brand is: "Essential Mexico." And, there's a catchy phrase, too, for Mexico, featured on its official site: "Been There, Haven't Done That."Tourism is a good thing. Even places that don't seem particularly tourist-oriented have been branded. For example, Des Moines, Iowa. In Des Moines, at the time of this posting, the catchword there is, well... "Catch." As in: "Catch Des Moines" and "Catch The Spirit of Science (in Des Moines)" and "Catch Homemade Goodness (in Des Moines.)" And so on.
Sometimes branding slogans miss the mark, especially when they enter the hazy world of double entendres. The Copper River Valley, north of Valdez and east of Anchorage, struggled for decades with its early efforts at branding, after the region impulsively decided to label itself "Nature's Centerfold."
Anchorage's slogan, for many years, involved a big, goofy dancing moose, named "Seymour." (As in "See More Anchorage.") Then, a few years ago, a new phrase for Anchorage was unveiled: "Big. Wild. Life."
The phrase immediately caused a ruckus, especially in rural parts of the state, where about half the people live on an immensely larger piece of land than that used by Alaska's largest city. If you know Anchorage, though, there was some truth to it. The city isn't "big" population-wise, but it's an enormous chunk of land, stretching 50 miles to the south and up to the north, to the Matanuska Valley, too. The city is "wild" because it's criss-crossed with greenbelts, sponsors in-city sled dog races, and is home to up to a thousand roaming wild moose, that wander city roads and sidewalks, and into people's yards with impunity -- ripping off branches of decorative small ornamental trees.
Brands are made to be noticed. After the rebranding, within Anchorage itself there were parodies of the slogan. A homemade film (above) was shown on an Anchorage TV station, KTUU.
In Talkeetna, a small town a hundred miles north of Anchorage -- with a total population of less than a thousand -- the tiny Talkeetna Chamber of Commerce came up with its own branding slogan. It piggy-backed on the idea -- and poked gentle fun at Anchorage. And at themselves.
Talkeetna is a homegrown little place, with dozens of old log cabins and a colorful history of trapping, mountaineering and living the Alaska life. Plus, it has a boatload of attitude.
For Talkeetna-ites, if sweeping superlatives are good, why, even broader superlatives are better.
Talkeetna's slogan: "Bigger. Wilder. Livelier."