Every place needs a slogan

By RICHARD SHAW ECP Publisher

A couple of years ago the state of Utah spent a lot of time and money going around the state getting peoples ideas for a new state slogan; one that would catch the eye of tourists all over the world. They even brought a crew to Castle Country and spent some time here. I went to that meeting along with about 50 other people and I thought that the group here came up with some very good slogans.
Utahn’s (or some at least) didn’t think the old slogan “Utah: A Pretty Great State” was good enough so eventually they picked “Utah: Life Elevated.”
Yuck.
There were at least five suggested sayings from the crowd that attended the meeting in Price that were better than that.
For some reason everyone has to have some kind of brand to remind others how wonderful they are. At the meeting we discussed “Virginia is for Lovers” and Texas’ “It’s like a whole other country” and how successful those slogans had been for those state’s tourism businesses. Of course there are other memorable ones like “I love New York” and New Hampshire’s “Live Free or Die” both of which have some questions to them. There are also some less than memorable ones like Delaware’s “It’s good being first” and “Visit Florida” (boy that’s a snappy one). Recently eastern Utah has also come up with it’s own regional slogan; “The other side of Utah.” Actually it is a much better one than Utah officials picked for the entire state; maybe they should have taken our local suggestions more seriously.
After discussing this propensity to put a jingle on ones place of residence, a couple of my friends and I have come up with another idea. Instead of just giving regions slogans, why doesn’t Utah let every county pick out their own slogans. Here are some ideas we came up with.
Box Elder- “Life named after an insect.”
Cache -“Couldn’t be colder.”
Rich – “It’s better to live life rich than poor.”
Daggett – “It’s not vanilla, it’s Manila.”
Uintah – “The quarry is closed, but you can still see the bones.”
Duchesne – “Life misspelled.”
Wasatch – “We like wrestlers.”
Summit – “Life yuppiefied.”
Weber – “Life with only one b, not two.”
Davis – “Life is a roller coaster.”
Morgan – “Weber Canyon’s gateway to Evanston.”
Salt Lake – “No lake stinks like it.”
Tooele “Life mispronounced.”
Utah – “Life multiplied and replenished.”
Juab – “Provo’s latest suburb.”
Sanpete – “Life without the water they think they should have but don’t own.”
Carbon – “Where the dinosaurs once roamed, and Democrats still do.”
Emery -“Life without stoplights.”
Grand – “The Colorado of Utah.”
Sevier – “Life in the middle isn’t as bad as it sounds.”
Piute – “Life would be boring without ATV’s”
Millard – “We used to have the state capitol, but now we just Fillmore gas tanks along I-15.”
Beaver – “Where everyones busy.”
Iron – “We’re not St. George, but we have a four year college.”
Washington – “What stays in Washington County goes to Las Vegas.”
Wayne – “Not named after John.”
Garfield – “Famous for cats.”
Kane – “Home of the Bill Clinton Environmental fan club.”
San Juan – “Monuments for all occasions.”
Okay, I realize some of these are funny and some are lame. And unless you are in on some current happenings (or not so current) you may be left out as to what the meaning of each is.
But let’s face it, Utah: Life Elevated sounds like an ad for an escalator company or some kind of medicine for men with a problem.
Yuck, again.