Glasgow: Scotland with Style flickrd

I happen to be born and bred Glaswegian, and the first thing I did when I saw the announcement of the Glasgow: Scotland with Style campaign was burst out laughing, then burst into tears when I saw it was serious:

Glasgow City Marketing Bureau is the official destination marketing agency for Glasgow with responsibility for positioning the city across its national and international markets and is custodian of the Glasgow: Scotland with Style brand.

It also operates the Convention Bureau, which is responsible for attracting conferences, meetings, exhibitions and events to Glasgow.

Glasgow City Marketing Bureau has a team of 40 staff engaged in Public Relations, Conventions Sales, Brand Marketing, Events, Events Marketing and Information Technology.

It is a not-for-profit body – funded by Glasgow City Council with contributions from the private sector.

Let me be immediately clear that I don’t have any problem with the aims of the organisation involved (does it take 40 to work through council funds though?), and the problem comes with the name/slogan/logo.

Does it imply that the only part of Scotland that has ‘Style’ is Glasgow?

Does it imply imply that everywhere else in Scotland has no ‘Style’? (And insults them as a consequence?)

The whole concept stinks, and is akin to someone declaring that they are the “World’s Greatest Genius”, or me declaring that “Secret Scotland” was the “Best Internet Site”. You’d laugh, and rightly so.

The only such titles that have any possible credibility are awarded by others, you may disagree with them, but they are at least not be self-awarded. Take for example 1990, when Glasgow was declared the European Capital of Culture. Some eyebrows may have been raised, but by and large, the year went well, didn’t insult anyone else, and didn’t smack of self-glorification.

It seems I was not alone in this thought, as I have just discovered a picture pool on flickr, dedicated to showing the city without the hypocritical slogan, the one they’d rather keep secret from the visitors they’re trying to attract.

Glasgow: Scotland with Style® on flickr

About Glasgow: Scotland with Style®

All photos that are SARCASTIC to the “Glasgow: Scotland with Style®” slogan.

Photos unrelated to the above will be deleted without notice; sorry, but that’s Glasgow.

When Glasgow reinvented itself as Scotland with Style we were amazed that no one was laughing apart from us. Glasgow isn’t populated by architects called Malcom; Saskia and Portia don’t sip lattes in pavement cafes and we don’t know anyone who works in fashion.

The city we know tends to be filled with brickies called Tam; Senga and Kylie drinking buckie behind the off license and we know lots of people who work in Fish and Chip shops.

We want photos of what Glasgow style really means.

To be frank, and with no prejudice to the flickr group, which I think is great, I would usually think twice about including anything which was particularly negative in its outlook, but the Scotland with Style campaign/logo just gets right up my nose, and I think the opportunity to promote Scotland with Sarcasm outweighs the potentially negative aspect of the subject.