To Seattle's Metronatural, I "Say Wa?"

Not long ago I commented on Washington State's Dept. of Trade and Economic Development's Say Wa? Slogan. You know, I thought that would have been the only stuff about bad slogans I would have had to post. I guess I was wrong.

The geniuses at the Seattle Convention and Visitor's Bureau have spent $200,000 on Exclaim and 16 months to come up with an attractive slogan, to convince tourists and conventions to come and visit Seattle and spend their dollars here. The result?

Seattle: Metronatural

Oh my...

Plastered all over the Visit Seattle web site, the new slogan aims to elicit the combination of urban metropolis and natural beauty that exists in our city. I can't help but think of "Metrosexual" when I hear the word. And I'm sure a lot of others can't, either.

OK, great, fine...but what was wrong with Emerald City to do that? "Seattle: The Emerald City". Emerald, you know: green, for trees and plants and such. Perfect, right?

Here are some other fine ideas:

• Seattle: Please don't hate us because we're beautiful
• Seattle: Not as close to North Korea as you might think
• Seattle: Also a gateway to California!
• Seattle's awesome! It has lots of coffee!! OMG!
• Seattle: We still care about parks and stuff
• Seattle: Safer than Detroit, prettier than Des Moines

One positive note in all this naming mess: according to an article, Seattle's old travel-friendly name was Sea@L. Um, yeah, that one's pretty bad, too.