ANOTHER search for a city slogan has proved futile.
The rebranding exercise has come up with: "People Make Glasgow". Which is true. Without the inhabitants, Glasgow would be just a collection of empty buildings. This goes without saying. But the city marketing bureau will spend half a million quid next year saying it.
Apparently hunners, if not thousands, of people were consulted and the best available brains sifted through opinions and suggestions. But it looks to me as if some high heid yin chose People Make Glasgow. And underlings, as in the case of the emperor's new clothes, were reluctant to say haud oan, that's minging.
City council leader Gordon Matheson (and I'm not even hinting here that the hero of the great let's have a George Square design competition and then cancel it fiasco had the final say in the matter) waxed lyrical: "Glasgow is a warm, welcoming and genuinely friendly city, because the people are. We're an ambitious, inventive and entrepreneurial city, because the people are. And we're a down-to-earth, to- the-point, no-nonsense city, because the people are. People Make Glasgow reflects the Glaswegian character. It's bold, friendly, confident, and it evokes a real sense of pride."
Glasgow is such a down-to-earth city it would never describe itself in such terms. That is for visitors to say, not for us to sloganise about. But don't mind me. If I was in charge the slogan would be Glasgow: Definitely No' the Worst. Or Glasgow Smiles Better, If Only We Had the Teeth For It. It seems the phrase People Make Glasgow is incomplete and bits will be added in marketing campaigns. Words like creative, artistic, vibrant, and other adjectives to describe how fabulous Glesca is in the fields of life sciences, financial and business services, low-carbon industries, engineering, manufacturing and design, higher and further education and tourism.
Down-to-earth people may choose to say People Make Glasgow: untidy, a bit too edgy at times, still uncomfortably sectarian, or want to go to Edinburgh. It is undeniably true that People Make Glasgow Gallus.
I am grateful to the PR people for the information: "The branding uses a strong geometric typeface that draws on the city's shipbuilding heritage and the style and colour palettes employed by Glasgow's world-renowned cultural icon, Charles Rennie Mackintosh." Look out for an exciting new era of art deco shipbuilding.
tom shields Glasgow boasts better
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