Wellywood sign: see blog posts from last year (like this).
You’d think Wellington Airport would know that the majority of residents are against this awful idea. An intelligent person would think: floating an idea in 2011 that was nearly universally rejected in Wellington in 2010 isn’t smart.
Yet that’s exactly what they’ve done.
As I said last year: copying someone does not celebrate our originality.
The sign runs counter to any notion of Wellington’s creativity and civic pride.
Let’s go through the motions again. Time to dig out last year’s emails to the Hollywood Sign Trust, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and the licensing company with a new link to the Fairfax Press article.
Yeah, I’m a narc when it comes to protecting originality, more so when it’s going to make our city look like a global laughing-stock. I would similarly act for any Kiwi firm that gets ripped off by someone else. Even in non-election years.
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Dude,
It is a brilliant piece of marketing which will bring a load of international press and interest in our backward little capital city.
Wellington needs all the support and promotion it can get. The value of publicity this sign will bring would be very hard to achieve in any other way and the meager cost of the sign will more than pay for itself in international exposure.
Help Wellington instead of trying to hold it back.
J
Jethro, I believe in free speech so I’ve let your comment through. My arguments can be found elsewhere, but to summarize, I believe you’re quite wrong.
I don’t see Wellington as backward. Evidently, you aren’t aware of the innovations that stem from our city. And cities like ours don’t need 20th-century thinking like a tacky sign, when most advanced economies are trying to look for ways to remove theirs.
If we’re to encourage more innovators to come here—and many have, citing our lifestyle and talent—then we don’t need a massive sign to tell them to bugger off.
Wellington doesn’t stand for unoriginality. Promotion? Any marketer worth his or her salt will tell you that any promotion will fail if it lacks authenticity—and this does.
Any marketer who understands destination branding knows you need the citizens on side. ‘Wellywood’ doesn’t have the support of the community.
Jethro, you may be unaware that we already have had international exposure because of this sign—a lot of it negative. I don’t see this city as a global laughing stock—and our stature had fallen because of this ridiculous idea.
As to helping Wellington, I think my record for this city shows that I do—far more than a reputation-damaging sign ever would.
I would rather you helped Wellington instead of trying to hold it back.