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Thursday, January 15, 2009

That's So Embarrassing, L.A.



Do they even bother to focus group these things? You may have read that Los Angeles has unveiled a new tourism campaign, under the slogan "That's So LA."

New spots include Tom Hanks, Kobe Bryant and Lauren Conrad -- yes, really, that's who L.A. has chosen as one of its ambassadors to the world (ugh, that's a blog post in itself).

Los Angeles has always struggled with finding a catchy slogan. As Rick Orlov notes, past failed attempts include "L.A.'s the Place," "Together, We're the Best" and most recently, "See My L.A."

But hold on. At least none of them were kinda derogatory toward L.A. And none of them sounded remotely like a tasteless yet popular slur.

"That's So L.A." manages to do both. In much of the country, "That's So L.A." might be uttered after someone does something bizarre.

Meanwhile, let's face it, the slogan rhymes with the all-too common slur, "That's so gay." And strangely, L.A. is starting to promote "That's So L.A." right when several groups, such as ThinkB4YouSpeak.com, are making a new effort to convince the nation's youth to stop saying "That's so gay":

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