Comments on: rebranding baltimore

By: neal

neal — Tue, 20 May 2008 15:02:56 +0000

Your wife owns Shine, Drury? I love that place.

By: Drury

Drury — Mon, 19 May 2008 23:11:25 +0000

I’m such an optimist about Baltimore that I give most of these taglines the benefit of the doubt. The BELIEVE campaign with it’s stark Black & White seemed honest to me. My wife has a shop in Hampden where we sell “Best City in America” Tshirts like hotcakes. But I agree, the “Get in on it” is clumsy and thin. What I love about the old world description above is that it boasts a municipal pride in structures and spaces, which are very much still with us.

By: neal

neal — Fri, 16 May 2008 19:46:20 +0000

I love “Charm City” too, Garret. It wouldn’t bother me in the least to see that one go official.

In the meantime, I’m thinking of making “Entrepot of the Imperial West” t-shirts.

By: Garret Ohm

Garret Ohm — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:51:55 +0000

Hi Neal ::

Great post. It’s interesting because the city’s branding efforts have tended to be a little schizophrenic over the years. You can see Baltimore reaching out to tourists with, let’s face it, LAME taglines like “Get in on it,” as well as encouraging residents to BELIEVE. Neither are really that effective because they don’t get to the heart of what’s great about this city. Not to mention BELIEVE is just a grim reminder of the crime problem this city grapples with.

At OE, we’ve always been kind of fond of “Charm City.” I think more than any other moniker, it really describes what makes Baltimore great — it’s little neighborhoods and nooks and crannies. The personality and charm this city has…Something for residents to be proud of and for tourists to admire.

We say BRING BACK CHARM CITY.

By: robert

robert — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:19:06 +0000

Nice! I love old pictures like that.