It's raining slogans

Perhaps we need highway signs saying, "Welcome to Augusta: Catchy slogans next 2 exits."

After thirsting in the slogan desert lo these many years, Augusta now is bloated with two rather first-rate catch phrases.

First, the Augusta Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau rolled out a slick, well-researched tourism campaign called "I Played Augusta." Advertisements exploiting Augusta's tie-in to the Masters tournament have not only been in trade and tourism publications for months, but have also earned industry plaudits: "I Played Augusta" was named one of the top three tourism marketing campaigns in the nation by the Travel Association of America's National Council of Destination Organizations.

Augusta's CVB was mentioned in the same breath as those in Costa Mesa, Calif., and The Beaches of Fort Myers/Sanibel Island.

And earlier this year, the CVB's print ads received the Adrian Award from the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International.

One of the golf-themed campaign's more creative ads features Augusta Canal boat passengers and a headline, "Not all water is considered a hazard."

So, given all this - and the $650,000 that has gone into the campaign over more than three years - you can see how folks at the CVB might be a little concerned that the Augusta Commission recently had adopted its own slogan for the city: We feel good.

The commission was a bit impulsive in approving it - giving no thought, apparently, to the fact that the CVB was promoting another slogan. And in promoting two slogans, the city risks tripping over itself.

Still, it's difficult not to like the "We feel good" slogan too, which plays off both the James Brown connection and Augusta's vibrant medical community.

Commissioners may be mending some fences: Their Administrative Services Committee voted recently to let the CVB decide how to make use of the "We feel good" slogan. That seems like a good compromise.

At bottom, the slogans may not be mutually exclusive: The "I Played Augusta" theme is more tailored to visitors, while the "We feel good" phrase is something residents should tout.

We leave it to the CVB to sort out.

They're the award-winners, after all.