The Daily Whim
Confusing Visitors Daily Since 7-16-2000
Tue. May 31, 2005
Come Climb Our Cranes
Recently, you may have heard of an effort to Brand Atlanta: “Launched in February of 2005, the Brand Atlanta Campaign is an initiative charged with creating a new branding strategy and marketing plan for Atlanta.”
Of course, you must have a catchy slogan. I kind of like “The Big Fuzzy” (it’s a peach reference). But that’s not why I wrote this. Some campaigns can take on a life of their own, with events driving the action.
A man who climbed up a crane in Buckhead and kept police at bay for six hours finally came down on his own after running out of cigarettes early Tuesday morning.
“We obliged him by sending someone to get some more and eventually it seems he wanted another cigarette and he came down for it,” said a visibly tired Atlanta police Maj. C.W. Moss at 3:45 a.m. Tuesday.
The scene seemed like deja vu to Atlanta police, who captured murder suspect Carl Edward Roland shortly after midnight Saturday after he spent 56 hours atop a 350-foot-tall crane less than two miles from the site of Monday night’s standoff on Peachtree Road.
AJC: “Buckhead crane climber comes down for a smoke”
I think we’ve got a new slogan: “Atlanta: Come Climb Our Cranes!”
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I’ve always thought that the crane should be the symbol of the city.
Or maybe a crane stylized to look like a phoenix.
Or maybe Izzy in the form of a crane stylized to look like a phoenix.
“I’ve always thought that the crane should be the symbol of the city.”
Why, didn’t you know? The crane is the state bird. An urban bird, they tend to cluster around Atlanta, and other than a brief period during the early 90’s when they neared extinction, they can always be seen over the city.
“Or maybe Izzy in the form of a crane stylized to look like a phoenix.”
You see, it’s this kind of thinking that brought us Izzy to begin with. Nothing personal, but “The Atlanta Games mascot, Whatizit, was chosen by a tight circle of A.C.O.G. leaders, then immediately torched by the press, and the public. But what do you expect when a few beancounters and lawyers try to make a creative decision? Whatizit was whisked from public view, given cosmetic surgery (his eyes are smaller) and liposuction (he’s no longer round), but his public image could not be salvaged. So, Whatizit changed his name to Izzy, and ran away, trying to drown his sorrows in Pepsi and Everclear.”
So, when you refer to “Izzy,” that’s his street name (post rehab), not his his given name.
But maybe that would be a decent slogan as well … Atlanta: Whatizit?
(Warning: if you didn’t live or work in the city in 1996, this will make no sense.)
Reminds me of my favorite joke of 1996:
-What’s that blue line?
-That where we dragged Izzy out of town.
Oh, you can’t leave non-residents hanging like that.
During the Olympics, many of Atlanta’s primary streets had a bright blue line painted down them, almost drunkenly (it veered from side to side of the road). It marked the course of the marathon. Over 26 miles of bright blue line.
And when people would ask, “what’s that?”, a fun response was “That’s where we dragged Izzy’s sorry blue butt out of town.”