COLUMN: Montana, no limit (on state slogans)
“The Sky’s the Limit.”
That’s the new official marketing slogan for Montana state tourism, which was rolled out last week at the Governor’s Conference on Tourism and Recreation in Kalispell.
As far as slogans go, you probably can’t beat the unofficial Montana state slogan, “The Last Best Place,” which came from the title of an anthology of writing by state authors co-edited by my old creative-writing professor Bill Kittredge.
But I guess the challenge of an unbeatable slogan is that someone always wants to try to beat it — or steal it! Since the book came out in 1988, the phrase has become popularized in a variety of settings, and a number of private companies tried to trademark it as their own brand. Fortunately, “The Last Best Place” is now protected by Congress from being commercially exploited because it is so integrally associated with Montana as a whole.
I’m no marketing genius, but for my money “The Sky’s the Limit” is a vast improvement over several of the recent attempts to attract people to our great state.
No doubt, you’ve seen the “Get Lost” slogan on the back of a number of four-wheel-drive vehicles, where the double entendre of the saying seems to be telling drivers to “back off,” not exactly an inviting sentiment. In addition, it has always seemed counterproductive to encourage people to get lost in a state where “search and rescue” is a phrase more commonly heard than “safe and sound.”
Along the same lines, the recent slogan “Step out of Bounds” seemed to be an invitation to our visitors to do something dangerous like “Jump off a Cliff” or “Dive in a Geyser.” Maybe it could have been shortened to “Drop Dead.”
Or maybe it’s just me. There could be a perfectly good reason to tell people “There’s Nothing Here,” but aren’t the next three words that usually follow that phrase “Move along now”?
I guess the marketing theory here is that tourists are essentially overgrown children, so reverse psychology will work on them the same way that putting an “R” rating on a movie makes it a must-see for adolescents. “Stay away from Montana” means they will come in droves.
Some of the older slogans are more to my taste. “Montana — Naturally Inviting” was in play in 1985, the year after I started working at the Inter Lake. I felt like it was a personal greeting. A few years later it was “Montana — Unspoiled, Unforgettable.” Good stuff.
But really, if you ask people what phrase they associate with Montana, chances are most of them are going to say “Big Sky Country.” That unofficial state nickname derived from A.B. Guthrie Jr.’s Western novel “The Big Sky,” and if you’ve ever driven across Montana on either the Hi-Line or I-90, you don’t need any explanation. “Big Sky” is what it’s all about.
I remember my first trip across the border in August 1977 when I was moving from Spring Valley, New York, to Missoula, Montana, to begin my tutelage at the knee of Kittredge both in the English Department at the University of Montana and at the Eastgate Liquor Store & Lounge. Leaving North Dakota and kicking into high gear in my Oldsmobile 88 as I approached Wibaux, I knew I was home for the first time.
The Sky’s the Limit? Definitely — which means no limits at all, just like there was no speed limit at all in Montana back in the day when I first got here. Compared to my suburban upbringing in cramped New York, the Big Sky of Montana meant I had “Room to Breathe.”
Hey, maybe that’ll be the slogan next year. Either way, for me, Montana is EZ 2 LUV.