Friday, October 12, 2012

During the 1990s, city slogans became all the rage as chambers of commerce, tourism boards and city councils tried to forge indentities for their regions.

This week in 1995, the Hutt Valley unveiled its new slogan for promoting its cities: "Right up my Hutt Valley". The slogan eventually faded into oblivion and "We've Got the Lot" became Lower Hutt's tagline, until it was ditched in 1999.

Earlier this year, Hutt City Council circulated "I heart the Hutt" badges and ran a competition asking residents to complete the sentence: "I love the Hutt because ..." Meanwhile, Upper Hutt has become "A great place to live".

To celebrate the week that saw "Right up my Hutt Valley" born, the staff at Stuff has put together a list of ten city slogans from the past. Do you remember any of these?

1. "Auckland A" was developed by the Saatchi & Saatchi advertising agency to rival "Absolutely Positively Wellington." It was dumped in 2008 in favour of "Big Little City".

2. "Of course you Canterbury". The 90s slogan was ditched long ago but it made a comeback recently as the catchcry for the earthquake-devastated city.

3. "Dunedin, it's all right here". Letter writers said this gave the impression "It's OK here, I guess." The city re-branded as "I am Dunedin", but many called the slogan stupid and, in 2010, it was also dumped.

4. Hamilton had several goes at it. There was "Hamilton, where it's happening", "Hamilton, more than you expect', and "Hamilton, City of the Future".

5. "Foxton the Fox Town". Eventually the town stopped seeing the the funny side of its foxy monniker and in 2005 took down the welcome sign bearing the slogan.

6. Wairoa: "New Zealand the way it used to be". Seriously, everything closes at 4pm in Wairoa. Ad Feedback

7 Dannevirke: "Take a liking to a Viking". The slogan was criticised by some of the town's councillors as too being raunchy.

8. Ashburton: "Whatever it Takes" ... to do what, you might ask?

9. Porirua: "P-town". Porirua unveiled an image makeover earlier this year, with mayor Nick Leggett saying 'Lets call us 'P-Town'. Let's just say, not Porirua's proudest moment.

10. "Right Up My Hutt Valley". Need we say more?