The NY Times wonders if good marketing will help
San Francisco’s Brand Is in Trouble. Can a New Ad Campaign Fix It?
San Franciscans don’t like outsiders bashing their city, but they’re also cleareyed about its biggest problems: homelessness, rampant drug use and leaders who can’t seem to fix those issues.
So how does San Francisco turn its lackluster image around?
Some wealthy locals say the way forward is a brand refresh, and they are throwing their support behind a new $4 million ad campaign that will promote San Francisco as a hub of innovation and creativity.
The slogan? “It All Starts Here.”
It’s meant to remind San Franciscans — and everyone else — that the city of cable cars, Levi’s jeans, the Summer of Love, Gap Inc., Uber, Harvey Milk and the Golden State Warriors still has an exciting future ahead of it.
What starts here? Poop, urine, and used drug needles in the street? Homeless everywhere? Rampant crime? Car breakins and thefts? Gap? Most of their stores in SF closed, and they just shut down their Banana Republic in the downtown area, where most companies are closing their stores. Levis is still open in the downtown area, but, it’s surely just a matter of time. Tech companies are leaving over all those issues, as well as the high taxes and high cost of living. Cable cars aren’t enough to chance having a 1 in 20 chance of being a victim of property crime.
In fairness, there are large areas of SF which are safe. You know, the richer areas where the cops tend to be deployed to in order to protect those toney areas.
The campaign, funded by tech billionaire Chris Larsen and Bob Fisher, whose parents founded Gap in San Francisco in the 1960s, includes a social media video narrated by actor Peter Coyote, hundreds of billboards around the city, banners hanging from light poles, and bumper stickers and signs for business owners and residents to hang in their windows.
“No question we’ve got problems we’ve got to fix,” said Larsen, who has funded numerous startups and now sees his city’s reputation as desperately needing investment.
“But we can’t let the brand just suffer,” he added. “We’ve got so much to be proud of, and we can’t lose sight of that.”
Does it really help to tell residents this? Also, they aren’t actually fixing the problems.
Meanwhile, the high crime Democratic Party run city of Seattle thinks they have a Plan
Support Seattle mayor’s anti-crime proposal, including gunshot detection system
With the general election less than three weeks away, crime remains a top issue for Seattleites. With that, Mayor Bruce Harrell has asked the Seattle City Council to fund a $1.8 million crime prevention pilot program in its 2024 budget.
The program would fund closed-circuit television surveillance at outdoor public spaces in certain areas, acoustic gunshot-locator technology and the expansion of automatic license plate readers to detect stolen vehicles.
I bet they will not like the gunshot locator, because that is considered to be raaaaacist. The license plate readers only help after some has had their car stolen. Surveillance? That’s more about Big Brother
Upon the completion of a racial equity analysis, given that the mayor’s office anticipates it would find no such biases, City Council members should listen to their constituents’ pleas for action and support Harrell’s anti-crime proposal.
Everything is about race with these people
As homicide numbers continue to tick up in Seattle, and as the number of police officers continues to drop, these tools will help police investigate incidents of gun violence that have wreaked havoc on families and neighborhoods.
In other words, crime will still go up, because they do not know what stops it. Or refuse to implement measures that lower crime. But, hey, Seattle residents voted for this, and seem surprised that they got it.
