Is Freedom a Four Letter Word?
Posted by Scott Dunn on April 20, 2009
Here’s the marketing outrage of the year. The Port Authority of New Jersey and New York has changed the name of the new signature building at the 9/11 terrorist strike from “The Freedom Tower” to “WTC I.”
Why? Because the word “freedom” makes it hard to sell, they say. They are trying to find tenants for the 1776 foot office/monument, and its tough sledding. But the rumor has it that China has popped for about three floors. Did China insist on the change? Why should they object? Are they afraid of the word? Or of the concept?
To me, “WTC I” invokes sad memories. It makes me think of bad, past days. Dark days of heroism, grief, and, yes, terrorists. But “Freedom” is inspirational and looks forward to days of light, progress and joy.
The old Twin Towers were not a raging success. I don’t think their occupancy was ever that great; I don’t know why. Maybe the new building will have a curse on it, and be hard to rent no matter what name it bears. If I were a salesman for the project, I know I’d rather be selling freedom than a tombstone.
There will be a brief chapter in my new textbook called “Courageous Marketing.” It will cover brands that survived the recession by plowing forward. It will describe the guts of taking uncertain paths. It will honor those who are single minded, despite pressure to diversify. It will not include the chicken-hearted politically correct sycophants like the Port Authority of New Jersey and New York.
The climate these days is to decry the greedy capitalists. The ones who make profits on the backs of the needy unfortunates. But they’re the ones who take risks for freedom, the brave people who aren’t afraid to step up with pride and say, “This is what I stand for. Want a piece of it?”
George Lemmond
This entry was posted on April 20, 2009 at 4:20 pm and is filed under marketing. Tagged: ad agency, ad agency alpharetta, ad agency atlanta, ad agency johns creek, ad agency miami, ad agency New York, advertise, advertise atlanta, advertise in alpharetta, advertise in atlanta, advertise in johns creek, advertise in milton, advertise in north fulton, Advertising, advertising agency, advertising agency atlanta, advertising alpharetta, advertising alpharetta ga, advertising atlanta, advertising city of milton, advertising ga, advertising georgia, advertising in atlanta, advertising johns creek, advertising milton, advertising roswell, advertising sandy springs, alpharetta advertising, atlanta advertising, atlanta advertising agencies, b2b advertising, buckhead, city of johns creek, city of milton advertising, digital advertising, emory johns creek hospital, George Lemmond, Johns Creek, johns creek advertising, johns creek business, johns creek business association, johns creek chamber, johns creek marketing, print advertising, roswell advertising, Scott Dunn, small business advertising, small business advertsing, social media advertising, sonarconnects, Town Planner, Town Planner Calendar, Town Planner GA, townplanner, townplannerga. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
