By now everyone has heard the state’s recently unveiled, 18-months-in-the-making tourism slogan, “SayWA.” A $442,000 campaign will put SayWA ads in magazines and on TV.
Yep, everybody’s heard it, not many like it. “Sounds like a baby.” “Sounds like somebody whining.”
But that’s just because they don’t get it. The Washington State Tourism Industry Web site really clears things up:
“Imagine that your guest is writing a letter back home about her travels. The SayWA moment is the climax of the story she is writing.
“This happened and we went here, and then this happened and we were like ‘WA!’ It was amazing!’ The moment is right there: the magic in the story and the part of the letter that makes the reader say ‘wow, I wish I had been there.’ That’s a SayWA moment.”
So SayWA is code for gibberish?
Another gem: “The delivery of SayWA is crucial to its meaning. Depictions of these experiences need to be simple, emotionally loaded, and authentic. Beautiful, to be sure, but not shallow. Deep. Human. Rewarding.”
Did the tourism crew stumble onto some new age guru? “The delivery of SayWA is crucial to its meaning”? Meaning what?
The site finally allows that “On the most basic level, WA = Washington. So when you “SayWA,” what you are saying, in effect, is “say Washington.”
Ah, why didn’t they say so?
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