IF it ain't broke, don't fix it. How often have we ignored that advice, and come to rue it? So it was in the early 1990s when the city of Glasgow decided to replace its celebrated Glasgow's Miles Better campaign with a new one centred on the slogan Glasgow's Alive.
This newspaper reported, in November 1991, on the thinking behind the £200,000 promotion, organised by the then district council and the Glasgow Development Agency, which was aimed at enhancing Glasgow's status as "one of Europe's leading cities". At the launch, the council and GDA said market research indicated that the public wanted a new slogan. Council leader Pat Lally rejected suggestions that the Miles Better campaign should have been continued or adapted: "I think Glaswegians have been quite proud of the city's achievements," he said. "They took very warmly to the previous campaign and I'm quite sure that, with a slogan that reflects the vitality of the city, they will play their part.''
Our main picture shows Lord Provost Bob Innes playing his part, posing with a new electronic advertising board erected in the city's Fenwick Road.
The campaign also took to the high seas. It's being promoted in our picture above by Robert Faulds, 29, a printing manager from Wemyss Bay – also a senior instructor with the Glasgow Schools' Sailing Club – who had earned a berth on the British Steel round-the-world yacht challenge as the winner of a competition run by SEC Exhibitions. He is accompanied, as was the custom at the time, by a bevvy of beauties from the Scottish Tourist Board, Stella Unsworth, Fiona MacArthur and Linda Whiteford.
Former Lord Provost Dr Michael Kelly, one of the men behind the Miles Better/Mr Happy campaign, said at the time of the launch: ''I think they should have stuck with Glasgow's Miles Better and revamped it because it was a tremendous message recognised throughout the world.'' It had ''entered our language'' and was ''never going to go away''.
He turned out to be right. Glasgow's Alive was soon declared moribund an Mr Happy resurrected.
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