THAT SLOGAN.

Temuka Leader, Issue 10054, 15 February 1927, Page 2

TH AT SLOGAN.

To the Editor. Kir, —The essence of a true slogan is its strike, its punch, its pep. But your correspondents aver that the business men’s choice hasn’t any. Are they right? Does anybody know precisely what the slogan was intended to comprehend? One correspondent complains that the chos en is of the wrong sex, effeminate; but let me remind him of the Amazons of Greek Mythology; trouserless but efficient in the arts of punch, or of the lavender-scented, pink-socked Algie conspicuous in modern scenery decorating the other sex, “(Charming” may or may not describe the goods; certainly it is a direct travesty of the cardinal principle of a slogan, which was a rallying of the clan itself and not a tout to travellers to stop and buy. A question is raised “Why ‘Choose’?” The answer is found on the draper’s counter, where the slogan (which is not a slaughghairm) is quite in keeping. Apparently the business men’s idea of a fitting slogan was not a gainn or rallying call to Tenrukaites to be efficient, but a fish-hook—-and a March Brown, to fickle the travelling. But even for this purpose it fails, just as the “sling-away sale price 2s lid, former price three guineas, fails: because overdone and apparent. Temuka is charming —in parts. There are parts again, as a correspondent suggests, that would he none the worse for an over haul. Perhaps the business men’s choice was a sub-conscious protest against the invocation of ‘apt alliteration’s artful aid’ and the consequent trying trail of ts, as in the runner-up “Toddle towards Temuka,” a “tiny-tots’ masterpiece, or the "Try Thriiljling Temuka, Tom Gunnion’s Tidy Town” type of tout. Bui be that as it may, and whatever the reason, the fact remains that the slogan doesn't slog on, and wasn’t worth the money. My advice to the Business Men’s Association is: Don’t be in too great a hurry drop it, and try again. We don’t want any of the "Sunny Timaru Welcomes You” typo of hogwash for Temuk'a: it is good enough for Timaru, hut not for Temuka. Give us something to make our. own people inarch as well as strike the ‘stranger within (and without) our gates.’—l am, etc., SLOGORNK.