At $5.8 million, Blue Sky City is one very expensive joke
Maybe Climate Emergency City wasn’t so bad after all. At least it didn’t cost us $5.8 million.
Jyoti Gondek came up with that rather interesting rebranding of Calgary all on her own, as soon as she got nicely settled into the comfy mayor’s chair.
Sure, it was a remarkably daft thing to do, given we rely so much on the energy industry for our wealth, but allow her some slack — there was no messing about nor any accompanying blather about how we need to collectively lift our eyes and welcome a truth we can all stand behind.
She did it; she owns it. And, come October 2025, she’ll receive the citizens’ verdict. That’s fair enough.
You may have guessed it isn’t that previous head-scratcher we’re on about today. We’re much further down the rabbit hole of stupidity than that. Step right up, Blue Sky City.
This is what Tourism Calgary and Calgary Economic Development came up with to replace Be Part of the Energy, because apparently we didn’t like that any longer as our civic slogan. (It seemed rather clever and appropriate to me.)
Instead we got this weak, dreary, done-to-death-everywhere, ode to the local weather.
Sure, we like blue skies, most people do. But there are blue skies all over the southern prairies. Medicine Hat and Lethbridge get marginally more sun than Calgary, as does Swift Current, Sask. So what? And does it suddenly cloud over when we hit Airdrie or Okotoks?
How could anything so lame and old-hat make the cut?
It starts with the words “inclusion” and “engagement.” Whenever any governmental agency is asked to bid on something these days, it immediately rolls out that pairing as part of any proposal.
This has two advantages.
First, it means talking to a whole bunch of special-interest groups, which in turn results in this taking way more time than it should — a couple of years for this latest nonsense — hence justifying a big taxpayer bill.
Second, whatever is finally sprung upon an unsuspecting public as the answer to any subsequent outrage is: “We asked people what they wanted and this is the result.” In short, it’s not us it’s them, and therefore it is you complainers out of step.
But there’s a nasty downside to this endless engagement malarkey. Once you’ve asked a bunch of various groups for their input, if you then do something completely different, they’ll be mighty peeved. You’ve wasted their time and ignored their wise counsel.
Of course, every group has its own agenda, so you no doubt got a mishmash of opinions, most of which are totally useless because they’ve no marketing expertise in the slightest. Yet, you asked for it.
What’s the solution to this unexpected dilemma? Come up with something so lame it can’t possibly annoy anyone, anywhere.
Presto — we discover Calgary has sunny skies.
But that does sound rather dull. So, the marketing department gets out its dictionary of totally superfluous phrases that nevertheless sound important and tosses a whole bunch of these at this new branding project, trying to make it seem as though they’ve stumbled across the Second Theory of Relativity, when in reality all they’ve come up with is: “We don’t like rain.”
So, today we are urged to “lift our eyes,” an OK slogan for a cosmetic surgeon, and “look up,” possibly good advice for those wandering about staring down at their smartphones, but not exactly a grabber in the how-best-to-market-Calgary stakes.
The zenith of this lunacy arrived with citizens being told we can find ourselves by following fatuous urgings to gaze at the sky above — doubtful, unless you’re named Lucy and have a penchant for diamonds.
Sorry for the flippancy, but sometimes all that’s left is laughter.
And at $5.8 million, Blue Sky City — BS City for short — is one very expensive joke.
Chris Nelson is a regular columnist.