Florida's Brilliant New Business Slogan Campaign

Checking in on Facebook this morning, I noted Brennan said this:

Heard this on the radio, had to share:

So apparently Florida has a new slogan to encourage business in their state, it says "Florida: The Perfect Climate for Business" except the I in Florida is a tie instead of an I. Of course, this being America, someone found offense with it. Saying it is "sexist", because obviously only men wear ties ever.

A columnist for the Tampa Times suggested "draping the "F" in Florida in pearls or anchoring the "A" in fashionable heels".

I can't even believe people like this exist... It hurts my brain... If this tie offends you, your stupidity offends me. So you better cut it out! Or I'm going to complain about it loudly and accomplish nothing!

Hmmm..... It is mildly offensive to women, but only mildly. These days, the crowd that Rush Limbaugh loves to call "feminazis" are in danger of suffering combat burnout. Every other day, some powerful legislature somewhere tries to implement mind-bendingly stupid laws regarding lady parts. Feminist outrage is pegged at such a high level right now, for sound, legitimate reasons, that getting all worked up about some dumb slogan would simply slip below their overtaxed radar.

But then my BS detector began to buzz. I began to wonder, and replied:

If anything's stupid it's that some ad agency got paid big bucks for this slogan. Maybe there is no controversy, and faux anger is the campaign rollout. If so, it's brilliant!

I started looking deeper. At the Tampa Bay Times:

This week Gov. Rick Scott and business leaders unveiled plans for a blitz to attract business to our state with this slogan: FLORIDA The Perfect Climate for Business.

Clever. That's climate as in business climate, but also our lack of sudden ice storms. Notably, the "i" in Florida is in the shape of a man's power tie.

This next thought may seem as ancient to younger women as whalebone corsets. But to some of us who grew up with tales of important downtown clubs where businessmen dined and women were unwelcome, of big deals cut on golf courses without pesky women in attendance, the message is not so subtle: Businessmen Welcome Here. The rest of you? Eh.

I consulted prominent local business types who also happen to be female:

"How you completely dismiss that entire segment of your business community and use a visual that is so associated with men — this is something out of the Mad Men era," says Beth Leytham, owner of the Leytham Group public relations firm.

"Not everyone wears a tie," said former Tampa mayor Pam Iorio, now a leadership speaker. "The business community is both men and women. I think I would have chosen something 21st century."

So, who is Beth Leytham?:

"Perhaps they should add a tag line: 'Florida is the perfect climate for business if you're a man,'" wrote Beth Leytham, a Tampa-based public relations executive, in an email to the Tampa Tribune.

"I thought immediately that it set us back, all the work that we've done. It's not that they have to make it pink or 'girlie,' but maybe put a briefcase or something like an iPhone or smartphone in there to represent business," Pamela Rogan, the President of the Central Florida Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners, told MyFoxOrlando.

I smell fish! The businesswoman at the center, Beth Leytham, is in advertising. And what are the odds that there are connections between Enterprise Florida and Central Florida Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners? There's a second controversy about funding going out of state, where the real scandal (if any) might be.

I bet Leytham is getting paid under the table. I bet Rogan is in collusion. My head explodes at the possibilities. It is brilliant!

As Brennan later remarked:

Mark, that would be pretty brilliant and whoever thought of it deserves a raise or promotion.

Yes, we are certainly talking about this slogan (that's mildly-offensive, but not truly so)! Generate a bit of heat, and Voila!

This faux-anger kind of campaign has infinite possibilities these divided days. Here the focus is on the right wing, with talk-radio as the messenger, but it could work equally-well on the left, through blogs and appropriate venues. INFINITE POSSIBILITIES!

I look forward to much manipulative sturm und drang in the coming years, courtesy of the Mad Men who really run our nation.