Our Favorite Reader Submissions for Massachusetts State Slogans
The state’s tourism chief wants to do away with Massachusetts’s dullsville state slogan, “It’s All Here,” so we asked you, dear reader, to help us brainstorm some new suggestions. And brainstorm you did.
Not all the submissions made on our Facebook page were great. (Some of you should really stay away from careers in marketing or comedy writing.) But many were. It’s easy to make jokes about taxes (more on that in a moment), but it’s hard to come up with a real tourism slogan that doesn’t sound super lame. Among the earnest suggestions we liked:
“Massachusetts: Where it began.”
Or
“An Uncommon Commonwealth.”
Or
“Wicked Revolutionary.” (We know jokes about regionalisms are a little tired, but this one worked for us anyway.)
Of course, most of you did not take this exercise seriously, but we appreciated your submissions anyway. Submissions like:
“Massachusetts: Florida’s Summer Home.”
Or
“Massachusetts: “Hard to spell, impossible to beat.”
Or
“Massachusetts: Say hi to your motha’ for us.”
Sometimes, state slogans can serve a practical purpose, so we enjoyed this submission:
“Massachusetts: Oncoming traffic yields at rotaries.”
Slogans can also exhibit a bit of bravado. Some states take the chance to display an ego. Delaware’s, for instance, is “It’s Good Being First.” With that in mind, we liked:
“Massachusetts: Kiss our Mass.”
As we said, not all suggestions were good. Many of you are still feeling that April 15 sting, and suggested something to the effect of “Open Your Wallet,” or “Bend Over.” Let’s exclude those from consideration. This is for tourism people. State slogans can be occasions for political statements. (Washington D.C.’s is “Taxation without representation.”) But many of you got, shall we say, a bit too political. Like this commenter’s suggested slogan:
“Welcome to the land of do nothing hacks who get us to do their jobs for them. They were too lazy to come up with a slogan yet take a paycheck every day anyway. How’s that?”
Well, to tell the truth, it needs work, bud. It’s a little verbose, and honestly, we’d probably just as well stick with “It’s all here.”