Archives for April, 2006

"Climb out"? Of what?

The Slovenian Tourist Board has released its much anticipated new commercial for CNN. At a cost of 780,000 euros, it is the country’s flagship promotional project. It’s scheduled to air five times a day on CNN Europe in the early summer months and then again in the fall.

The video is beautifully done and I tip my hat to everyone involved, with the exception of those responsible for the awkward slogan: "A diversity to discover." The original (and superior) slogan — "the perfect getaway" — was rejected at the last minute out of concern that foreigners would interpret the word "getaway" in the criminal sense. (As in: After you’ve robbed a bank and killed your hostages, come to Slovenia: The perfect getaway!) I don’t think many people would have actually made that association, but it was nice to see so much thought going into the project.

Unfortunately, the creators ran out of time to think about things for much longer, so a silly, subpar slogan is now in the final cut.

Some brief thoughts on the slogan "A diversity to discover":

1) It’s usually good to avoid the passive voice, especially when trying to get someone’s attention. I couldn’t understand "a diversity to discover" when I first saw it. I still don’t, even after thinking about it. If you make the slogan active, though, you get a good sense of how odd it is. "Slovenia: Discover a diversity."   ???

2) The word "diversity" itself is problematic, in that it’s mostly used in a biological sense — to talk about different species or to talk about different races. It usually pops up in equal rights campaigns (like this EU one) and has become synonymous with terms like "multiculturalism." As a result, it also has a lot of political baggage attached to it. In short, if someone talked to me about Slovenia’s "rich diversity" I would assume they meant it was filled with foreigners of all races, creeds and colors. That’s probably not what the commercial wanted to say. (And it’s not exactly applicable for Slovenia anyway.)

3) This country is fighting a long, hard, seemingly endless battle for recognition within Europe and the world, so I applaud what this commercial is trying to do. It’s fighting the good fight. But I can also say that stuffy slogans announcing that "there’s a lot of different stuff here!" won’t make much of an impression. Slovenia’s obscurity is unfortunate on one hand, but it’s also an advantage: this country has the freedom to present any image it wants to the outside world. Sadly, the only thing this slogan says is that Slovenia is too boring to say anything special about itself.

4) "Climb out" makes absolutely no sense in the context that it’s used.

5) There’s a very good reason why the line "a diversity to discover" has, according to Google, never been recorded, ever. (Except for in this commercial)

Final thoughts: A while back, Croatia ran some ads on CNN. Their slogan was: "The Mediterranean as it once was." I thought it was brilliant. The shots were beautiful and the message was crystal clear: Other countries may have a coastline like us, but they’ve overdeveloped and fucked it up — so come on down and enjoy the unspoiled original.

It was a great message, and it quickly gave you a compelling reason why you should see Croatia.  Slovenia’s commercial, while aesthetically pleasing, fails to provide any reason about what makes Slovenia special or why someone should bother coming here. The only hope is that the pretty pictures will be enough of an enticement.

Here’s hoping it works.

–>  You can watch the video here.

(Thanks Alex!)