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Toronto Could Use A Better Slogan, And You Should Be the One To Coin It
How do you sum a city up in a phrase? Harder still, how do you sell it in one?
Many, hoping to lure tourists here, have tried. There was that ad with the woman holding her breasts and asking her partner, “Do you think I need a breast reduction?” There was “Toronto: As Gay As It Gets.” Years before those, there was Tony Bennett urging Toronto to “discover the feeling,” which came just after “Toronto…Affectionately Yours” and just before “Couldn’t you use a little Toronto?” Most recently, Toronto has pretended like it was the home of Niagara Falls in The New Yorker, Niagara took the piss out of Toronto in an ad campaign of their own, and a writer for the Huffington Post—here on a junket—dubbed Toronto “the New Capital of Cool” (and also said that “Torontonians refer to food as ‘the art that feeds people'”).
Back in 2007, in a Star piece about Toronto tourism slogans past and present, Ryerson marketing prof Ida Berger told Leah Sandals that “a brand can’t speak for itself but the citizens of a city can—and if marketing campaigns don’t represent the city, the city will speak for themselves.”
Torontoist wants to give you that chance. For the rest of the summer, we’re holding an independent competition to find a better slogan for Toronto—one that represents and shows off the city as it really is.
How to Enter, and What Happens Next
Until 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, August 10, submit your Toronto slogan by emailing it, along with your full name, to [email protected]. (You can enter up to three slogans. Before entering, please read the more detailed contest rules.)
After submissions close, a panel of Toronto experts—we’ll be outing them soon—will narrow the submissions down to ten finalists, with an eye for the best, cleverest, pithiest, and most Toronto-y slogans submitted. After the panel picks its finalists, those slogans will be turned into ten fake tourism posters designed by Torontoist’s Marc Lostracco and featuring original photography by Torontoist’s talented staff photographers. Finally, near the end of August, the public will vote for their favourite—it’s their votes that’ll decide which of the ten slogans comes out on top.
What The Winners Get
One grand prize winner and two runners-up will get big prizes, in addition to big bragging rights.
Grand Prize
The person who creates the slogan that earns the most public votes will also get:
- One 24″ x 36″ copy of their winning poster, printed by Toronto-based Posterjack;
- One one-night stay at the Gladstone Hotel in one of their Classic Designed Artist Rooms;
- One $100 gift certificate to Quinn’s Steakhouse & Irish Bar;
- One Family Pass for the Royal Ontario Museum;
- One pair of tickets to the Art Gallery of Ontario;
- One pair of tickets to the Toronto Underground Cinema screening of their choosing;
- One pair of tickets to the Second City performance of their choosing;
- One copy of Caitlin Cronenberg‘s naked-people-photo-book POSER;
- One Arts&Crafts prize back, including their “anchor” t-shirt; and
- One subscription to each of Broken Pencil, Spacing, and This Magazine.
Runners-Up
The two top runners-up will each get:
- One 24″ x 36″ copy of their poster, printed by Toronto-based Posterjack;
- One Family Pass for the Royal Ontario Museum;
- One pair of tickets to the Art Gallery of Ontario;
- One pair of tickets to the Toronto Underground Cinema screening of their choosing;
- One pair of tickets to the Second City performance of their choosing;
- One Arts&Crafts prize back, including their “anchor” t-shirt; and
- One subscription to each of Broken Pencil, Spacing, and This Magazine.
Submit your slogan, then keep your eyes glued to Torontoist in the weeks ahead, as we reveal our panel, announce our finalists and show off the posters we made for them, and then turn it back over to the public to pick their city’s new rallying cry.
Concept by David Topping and Karen Aagaard/Torontoist. Original lead image by Miles Storey.
Last updated, with one new prize and a bit more room for entries, on August 5.