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72 Comments September 24, 2010 at 1:00 pm

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A Better Toronto Slogan: Fall in XO with TO

One by one, we’re revealing the finalists for our better Toronto slogan competition, complete with mock tourism posters. Vote for your favourite starting October 6.

NAME: Fall in XO with TO
SUBMITTED BY: Sarah Bobas, who notes that it’s based on “the old Pepsi billboard that was on the Gardiner, viewable to those returning to the city from the airport—xo xo to.”
PHOTOGRAPHED BY: Lodoe-Laura Haines-Wangda/Torontoist
POSTER DESIGNED BY: Marc Lostracco/Torontoist
JUDGES’ COMMENTS: “It’s fresh, simple and memorable. I can picture this easily in ads and on souvenirs.” “Short and quick and memorable—uses acronyms well.” “Sure, it’s a riff on the ‘I [heart] NY’ campaign, but it’s catchy, clever, and typographically pleasing. I’d buy the T-shirt.” “Really cute. And a really clever way to allude to New York—that place we’re always being measured, or measuring ourself, against—without trying to beat it at its own game. This slogan’s Toronto’s own.”

Comments

rek

I like it
http://undefined barot

very nice
cute couple i might add
http://bit.ly/accozzaglia accozzaglia

*yawn*
Bored now.
http://undefined thelemur

It’s a nice idea and well executed, but I dislike resorting to the ‘T.O.’ shorthand because (a) it means little outside Toronto and (b) it keeps defining Toronto in relation to Ontario when we should be asserting our own urban identity.
http://robsonian.tumblr.com/ Robsonian

bingo
http://www.torontoist.com David Topping

Wait, do people take the “O” in “TO” to mean “Ontario?”
http://undefined torontothegreat

This one is my fave so far…
http://undefined rek

The way Ontario treats us, they should be flattered we still associate with them at all. We didn’t even defriend them on Facebook when they unfollowed our twitter.
http://undefined Stells Bells

too hetero
http://undefined thelemur

Yes. Isn’t that why it’s generally written T.O. or further abbreviated to the horripilating ‘T-dot’? It’s not from T-O-ronto or Toront-O, is it?
We need to reclaim our identity as Toronto. The Toronto. The one that comes to mind when we think of great cities. Not the towns of the same name in Kansas, Ohio, South Dakota or Australia (even though the latter was inspired by the feats of Ned Hanlan).
http://undefined Stells Bells

ha
http://undefined thelemur

If provincial/municipal relations were LiveJournal we could and should have friends-cut them long ago.
http://undefined wordsbyalison

never heard this before. Very interesting.
http://undefined Emily

Definitely the slogan I XO the most. Good job!
http://undefined The Junkyard Triangle

I thought the same. T.O. meant “Toronto, Ontario”. BTW, if you want to bug a Montrealer, call their city M-dot.
http://undefined thelemur

I had a more old-school interpretation of his username, but even then, that comment’s not up to Goscinny’s standard.
http://undefined Sean

Yes. You don’t?
http://bit.ly/accozzaglia accozzaglia

Don’t forget Toronto, Texas.
http://www.torontoist.com David Topping

I must be weird. I’ve never taken the “O” to mean Ontario. I took it as a shrinking of the word “Toronto” into “TO.” The periods—when they appeared there—were just there to annoy me, I figured.
http://bit.ly/accozzaglia accozzaglia

Yes. Certainly this shouldn’t be too much a surprise for you.
http://undefined TOgal

I never thought of TO being Toronto, Ontario. I thought it just meant TO. Toronto. Hmm.
http://bit.ly/accozzaglia accozzaglia

See, that actually doesn’t make too much sense. It’s not as if we hear Chicagoans refer to “C.H.” or San Franciscans refer to “S.A.” Come to think of it, Montréalers don’t say “M.O.”, and Edmontonians don’t mention “E.D.”
“T.O.” has always been about a relationship within Ontario. As to the use of “T-Dot,” it’s annoying doubly for it pointing back to its referent and for the idea that “T-Dot” somehow sounds awesome.
http://bit.ly/accozzaglia accozzaglia

Also, this is very funny.
http://bit.ly/accozzaglia accozzaglia

Thanks for saying it. I thought the very same thing.
http://undefined thelemur

I actually can’t think of any city whose nickname, self-applied or not, includes a reference to the entity in which it is located.
http://undefined Navin

Love it.
http://www.realjohnson.com TheRealJohnson

No one calls Chicago the CI, or Edmonton the EA. The O in TO definitely does NOT stand for Ontario. TO is the short form of our city name. No one calls Montreal the MO, sure, but they do call it MTL. They also certainly don’t call it the MQ.
http://bit.ly/accozzaglia accozzaglia

To cite from the most academically sound source on the interwebs and the universe, here’s Wikipedia:

“In his book Naming Canada: Stories about Canadian Place Names, Alan Rayburn states that “no place in Canada has as many sobriquets as Toronto.”[9] Among them are the nicknames:
“* TO or T.O. – from Toronto, Ontario, or from Toronto; pronounced “Tee-Oh”. Sometimes used as T-dot, T-dot-O, or T-dot O-dot.[10]“

It can be both, but with the “T.O.” or “T-Dot” applications, it refers back to Ontario.
http://bit.ly/accozzaglia accozzaglia

Me neither.
It would make Houston a “H.O.”, Portland a “P.O.”, and Iqaluit an “I.Q.”
http://undefined thelemur

The fact that other cities don’t do it is precisely why it’s wrong for us. T.O. definitely does come from the old habit, outside Toronto, of consistently referring to the city as ‘Toronto, Ontario’.
http://bit.ly/accozzaglia accozzaglia

I read you incorrectly. I understand now what you meant. And yes, Toronto has always been anomalous that way.
CanadianSkeezix

TO, T.O. and T-dot aren’t official and there is no governing authority for Toronto nicknames. So the terms refer to whatever the user thinks they refer to. Obviously from the comments here, some people think some or all of the terms refer to Toronto, Ontario, while others think some or all refer simply to Toronto. Neither group is correct, and neither group is wrong.
http://undefined thelemur

Even the Portlands are self-assured enough to leave out the name of the state, despite the ambiguity. Ditto Vancouver, WA, a place with an identity problem to the outside world.
Oh, wait, I can think of one. There are two places in Denmark named Viby. The one on Zealand (Sjælland) calls itself Viby Sj, the one on Jutland is Viby J. But they’re disqualified on account of being full of silly fair-minded Danes.
http://undefined irismooninthecity

But what if it was done as a series of ads, each one showing a different couple, not all of them hetero?
http://bit.ly/accozzaglia accozzaglia

Do you require sobriquets, nicknames, and other ideas to be made official (by decree, perhaps?) before you will recognize them as legitimate or real? That’s silly talk.
How else can you define the “O” following the “dot”? Logically, nothing other than “Ontario” pans out. Otherwise, why would there be any need for abbreviated periods?
mikeyteeth

I always thought of it as T(oront)O
http://bit.ly/accozzaglia accozzaglia

Couples in love are able to shack up anywhere — even Kapuskasing.
If the series of ads depicted activities that one loves to do in Toronto (and sort of specific to Toronto), that might make more sense. Having someone dive into a big pile of toppings atop street meat — shot with a wide-angle lens showing the hot dog vendor in the picture frame’s corner smiling at the passion of that patron’s first bite — would be such a generic (though cheesy) example. Of course, it would also be a bright and sunny day in late spring just as people are cheerful to be outdoors.
That’s falling in love in Toronto.
http://undefined Stells Bells

Maybe
http://undefined davedave

This is horrible, horrible, horrible cheese.
http://undefined Stells Bells

Has anyone checked to make sure that “Xo” isn’t a cuss word in some other language?
thelemur

It seems to mean ‘very sad’ in Vietnamese, or, if missing accents are implied, it could also mean ‘thread’, ‘rush’ or ‘corner’.
I’m still struggling with the assumption that it should necessarily be read as ‘love’.
http://undefined CanadianSkeezix

Of course not. The issue isn’t whether the nickname is real, but rather what it means. What’s silly is when people make absolute statements about something as amorphous as the meaning of a nickname, the origins of which appear to be unknown. It’s all just a matter of supposition. Given the fact that so many people here seem genuinely surprised by the suggestion that T.O. means “Toronto, Ontario” rather than just “Ontario”, the periods could mean absolutely anything (e.g. TO, from Toronto, could have evolved to T.O., with periods indicating that it is not be pronounced like “to”), or they could mean absolutely nothing (just playful use of punctuation). There’s nothing conclusive that says that they are abreviated periods. Yours is a good theory, but it’s a theory.
http://undefined rek

I hypothesize that “TO” owes its origins to an archaic form of abbreviation, which takes the first and last letter of a word and puts them together. Doctor becomes Dr., “No.” means Number because it comes from “numero” (from Latin/its Romantic descendants), and such. Rightfully it would be “To.”, but that is easily confused with the word of the same spelling, so an additional period crept in to break it up, and the lowercase o was promoted to uppercase.
thelemur

I think where this (meaning the slogan and the picture combined) falls down is that it doesn’t approach promoting Toronto by putting oneself in the shoes of someone with little or no familiarity with the city. It’s too inside.
Without the Torontoist tagline at the bottom, we have an artfully blurry shot of a waterfront city with a pointy tower (Seattle? Auckland?).
Then a slogan inviting us to fall in … what, exactly? XO seafood sauce? Extra old cognac? Tic-tac-toe?
The viewer is required to do some interpretative legwork by associating the couple with the slogan and then … oh, I get it, XO, hug and kiss, fall in love. Is XO really a universal representation of ‘love’?
With TO. What is TO?
We shouldn’t have to be in or from Toronto to get it.
thelemur

I think where this (meaning the slogan and the picture combined) falls down is that it doesn’t approach promoting Toronto by putting oneself in the shoes of someone with little or no familiarity with the city. It’s too inside.
Without the Torontoist tagline at the bottom, we have an artfully blurry shot of a waterfront city with a pointy tower (Seattle? Auckland?).
Then a slogan inviting us to fall in … what, exactly? XO seafood sauce? Extra old cognac? Tic-tac-toe?
The viewer is required to do some interpretative legwork by associating the couple with the slogan and then … oh, I get it, XO, hug and kiss, fall in love. Is XO really a universal representation of ‘love’?
With TO. What is TO?
We shouldn’t have to be in or from Toronto to get it.
http://bit.ly/accozzaglia accozzaglia

I defer theory to other linguistic historians. I defer to Len when I hear “T-dot” or the O in “T.O.” referring to anything other than “Ontario”.
Preferably, I say “Hog Rock Town,” vis-à-vis “Peg Rock City” of Winnipeg (the “W-dot-I”).
http://undefined Stells Bells

only 905ers and former 905ers say T-dot. It’s ass.
http://undefined Stells Bells

And I think the Tee Oh was Trawna trying to be En Why Sea. Around the world, people type NYC .. TO never stuck
http://undefined barot

I’m sorry, but did you try to take a picture for this? No, no you did not. Constructive criticism is welcome but your tone is ridiculously condescending and arrogant. Who do you think you are?
http://undefined barot

I agree with you
http://bit.ly/accozzaglia accozzaglia

A Torontonian.
A Torontonian who in May, on that first awesome weekend of the season, happens to love ordering street meat nearby the streetcar stop I just disembarked, because it’s an “only in Toronto” kind of moment that can’t be replicated in Chicago, NYC, or Seattle (and can only be approximated in Vancouver with TransLink buses).
I’m a Torontonian in love with Toronto, my favourite city on the planet. I want to encourage other people to fall in love with this city the way I have. I’m definitely not an exclusivist.
I think I’d like to try to take a picture of this next May, and I think I would do a great job depicting this to film. I think I should be successful if I decide to follow that path. It just won’t be in Kodachrome.
For now, would a Kodachrome shot of people ordering hot dogs during wintertime from Poutine Truck on St. George in front of Sid suffice?
Also, you can lay off now.
http://undefined ToasterDan

Wow, this comment thread just blew my mind. Like mikeyteeth and David, I always (and still do) thought it was from the first and last letters of the word. It’s derived from how you say the name, which especially in Toronto itself is basically “TO”. Only the “T” and the “O” are ever really consistent.
I mean, when have you ever seen locations (or even two words that must be separated by a comma) combined like that?
Also, @accozzaglia, you seem to have missed some of the Wikipedia reference you quoted which says:

TO or T.O. – from Toronto, Ontario, or from Toronto; pronounced “Tee-Oh”. Sometimes used as T-dot, T-dot-O, or T-dot O-dot.

So Wikipedia (and apparently the book Naming Canada: Stories about Canadian Place Names, Alan Rayburn) imply it can be for both. We should all just agree then that either interpretation is fine.
http://bit.ly/accozzaglia accozzaglia

Except for that last line you missed in the comment you brought up:
“It can be both, but with the “T.O.” or “T-Dot” applications, it refers back to Ontario.”
http://undefined jmax86lax

You nailed it….some Torontonians use the T.O. but the rest of the world just does not see us that way.
rapi

how about XOYYZ…this will enlight all tourists for sure….
rek

Do we need the rest of the world’s acknowledgement of our initials/abbreviation/nickname/whatever before we can use it?
thelemur

Perhaps not, but we need to put ourselves on their radar as ‘Toronto’ before we start to introduce them to our nicknames.
You have to know that Houston exists as a destination before you can get your head around ‘H-Town’.
Pretty much everyone’s at least heard of Amsterdam but they aren’t going to reach anyone by inviting us to fall in love with ‘Mokum’. And so on.
http://undefined ToasterDan

Touche.
http://undefined AR

Fuck New York. It’s that I have anything against the city, I just want to maintain our distinct society.
http://undefined Sarah

Wow, a lot to say about this short little line my friends! So I think I need to explain myself – but I don’t want to get into the t-dot, T.O. vs TO (and whether or not Ontario is a part of this name) debate.
This slogan is quite simply an answer to the question of how do we get more people to come visit Toronto. And the reality is that people know what this city offers in terms of tourist attractions and that we have a multicultural population, that’s not news and it’s not enticing.
If you think about it like a simple ad campaign: we want to create interest, intrigue and evoke emotion and I think this line does that.
The layout is deceiving as the image suggests falling in XO with a person IN Toronto, but the line is actually intended to suggest falling in XO with the city of TO itself.
If you’re looking for more justification (babble) I posted some here on me blog: http://thebobasaccord.blogspot.com/2010/09/better-toronto-slogan-fall-in-xo-with.html
http://undefined Ted Warner

I love it. Short and sweet. It’s simple, easy to remember and catchy. Very simplistic like the I (heart) NY campaign.
XO TO
http://undefined Karly

It’s fantastic Sarah.
No need to get into the t-dot, T.O. vs TO and whether or not Ontario is a part of this name debate. TO is Toronto, MTL is Montreal – end of story
It really does create interest, intrigue and makes me want to hop on the island ferry!
I’ll be voting for you on Oct 6th!
http://bit.ly/accozzaglia accozzaglia

Except when TOR is Toronto. To most who’ve never been here, that’s what people remember. And to fans of a certain age, blame Rush for imprinting YYZ into their rockin’ heads.
Semiotics are never as cut and dry as “TO is Toronto, MTL is Montreal,” Karly.
One part I’m confused by is why you want to hop on an island ferry. The photo Marc used above for the concept was shot from nearby the mouth of the Humber in Etobicoke.
I’ll be voting for a better, more representative candidate for our city on October 6th!
http://undefined Sarah

thanks Emily!!!! I XO you
http://undefined InscrutableTed

“Washington, D.C.” is always called “Washington, D.C.”
New York City is often called “New York, New York”. (I’m assuming Sinatra didn’t make that up.)
I’ve heard Boston called “Boston Mass.”
I’ve always assumed (since childhood) that T.O. stood for “Toronto, Ontario”. But I’m also willing to believe that it’s a contraction (like MTL for Montreal) that’s been mispunctuated.
The trick would be to find old letters and see what they wrote on the envelope. Did they write “T.O. Ontario”, or just “T.O.”?
http://undefined Elizabeth Hay

Definitely, the best.
thelemur

And to fans of a certain age, blame Rush for imprinting YYZ into their rockin’ heads
I am always going to associate YYZ more with air travel. And I want to travel to St Anthony, NL, just to get luggage tags that say YAY.
thelemur

Washington, D.C., is often just called Washington (contrasted with ‘Washington state’) and, within its boundaries, ‘D.C.’.
Old letters, if they abbreviated anything, probably didn’t do more than truncate it to ‘Toronto, Ont.’ or ‘Tor., Ont.’ at most.
http://undefined thelemur

The slogan doesn’t work for me for the same reason that a slogan is needed in the first place: Toronto lacks an identity to the outside world. ‘TO’ doesn’t resonate with anyone who doesn’t already know Toronto, and our external recognition isn’t such that we can suffice with a nickname.
It’s the advertising equivalent of having an in-joke vanity plate that means something to you and people who regularly ride with you but is incomprehensible to pretty much everyone else who sees it.
http://undefined princesstrudy

here’s how I see it IMHO:
T.O. is named that by no one else than outsiders. I get the T-dot, but that was way back in the day, so that’s a no-go.
But, since Toronto has no other vowels than “O”, it makes sense, yes? And I agree with the poster who said: take the first and last letter, put ‘em together – makes sense.
I like the xoTO – ’cause, yes, we do need to fall in love with our city again. I have. I’ve travelled for work for a long time, and some cities are beautiful, and lovely and nice. I lived in Manhattan for a year recently and just came back, and it was awesome and great, but I missed our green spaces, our community spaces, my freaking Parkdale neighbourhood.
Damn, we don’t we just love ourselves more, invest in ourselves more? And stop caring if we’re “all that”. And just be greater than critics, and polls, and surveys.
xo
pt
http://undefined thelemur

Calling it ‘T.O.’ is totally insider – that’s why it’s a problem here. The campaign is not about us falling in love with our city again, it’s about getting the outside world to discover us.
Sean

XO till we overdose

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A Better Toronto Slogan: Fall in XO with TO

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