Slogan, redux

Tue Apr 28 15:58:28 UTC 2009

On Sun, Apr 26, 2009 at 05:02:07PM -0700, Robyn Bergeron wrote:
> On Sun, Apr 26, 2009 at 4:56 PM, Robyn Bergeron
> <robyn.bergeron at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Sun, Apr 26, 2009 at 9:16 AM, Paul W. Frields <stickster at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Thus far I really like "Lead the pack" the best -- but I'm going to
> >> hold this over for another 24 hours just in case someone comes in with
> >> a fantastic late-breaking entry.
> >>
> > I like this one; however, I'd like to point out that lions travel
> > in prides... and wolves / wild dogs travel in packs.  I'm not
> > really a nitpicker, and I think it sounds good, but other people
> > (those much more vocal than I :) ) may point out that the group of
> > animals name doesn't exactly match up with the lion, and make a
> > big woop-dee-doo about it.  Just sayin' :)
> >
> > Of course, "pride" does have some nice double-entendre action
> > going for it, so things like "Lead with Pride" (or Lead the
> > Pride?) would probably work well...  "Run with Pride" would have a
> > nice double-meaning (run the OS with pride, run with the pride of
> > lions) - but I think the preferable thing would be to imply
> > leadership (with lead) rather than being with the group (running
> > with... not necessarily ahead). "Innovate with Pride" could work
> > too... "Create with Pride" ...Okay, that one sounds like a label
> > my mother would have sewn into my clothing at age 5, but I'm just
> > throwing ideas out here that fit with the image. :)
> >
> > I'll add to the wiki, thoughts welcome... I love making last minute
> > suggestions. Doh!
> 
> In my infinite wisdom, I failed to read the whole wiki page (yeah, I
> do that sometimes) - so I'd like to wholeheartedly endorse mizmo's
> "Lead the Pride" suggestion.
> 
> My viewpoint is simply that there are a lot of negative nancy's out
> there who might be mean, cruel and heartless about the mixture of the
> word "pack" with the image of a lion.  On their blogs, in the press,
> etc....

I think there are always people who will find negative things to say
about any given marketing slogan.  It comes with the territory,
honestly.  There are plenty of ways to turn "Fire it up" into a
negative too ("Set it on fire!"  "Flame on!"), but we can't really
design to the standard of "Stop anyone from saying anything negative."

Mo's original suggestion was "Lead the pack," and I still like that
one, despite the fact that it's not as correct a word choice as it
could be.  It's a more familiar idiom and therefore not as awkward as
"Lead the pride."  But I agree that the sheer number of people who
say, "Lions don't travel in packs" will just distract from the
message, which is enough to knock it out of the running.

On the other hand, "Lead the pride" doesn't have to mean just leading
a pride of lions -- it may mean that all FOSS users can be proud of
using and running FOSS, but that Fedora is at the forefront of that
*feeling* of pride.  I'm not sure that clever twist, though, is enough
to overcome the inherent awkwardness of the actual wording.

So given these issues, I'll fall back to the slogan "Reign."  It's
short, simple, and best of all, multifaceted.  Coincidentally, Mo
submitted this one too, but I want to thank *everyone* who donated a
clever slogan for consideration.  Great job, everybody!

I talked this over with my wife, with whom I consult for many
important things (like marketing slogans for projects in which she has
no involvement -- oh, I meant "important to *ME*").  She suggested the
slogan "Let the women do all the work."  Those of you who know
something about lions' social and survival behaviors will get a kick
out of that.  I *think* she was being tongue in cheek....

-- 
Paul W. Frields                                http://paul.frields.org/
  gpg fingerprint: 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 0233  5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717
  http://redhat.com/   -  -  -  -   http://pfrields.fedorapeople.org/
  irc.freenode.net: stickster @ #fedora-docs, #fedora-devel, #fredlug
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