When Tourism Victoria announced they would rebrand as Destination Greater Victoria last week, along with the new name came a new logo and a new slogan.
However, “Oceans apart from ordinary” turned out to very similar to a 1974 Heineken advertising campaign that said the beer was “Oceans apart from the ordinary.”
“I wouldn’t recognize it, because I was two years old when it came out,” said Destination Greater Victoria CEO Paul Nursey.
“The reality is, if I were in the public realm, I might just leave it,” he explained. “But we are a highly scrutinized, quasi-public organization, and so we’re using an abundance of caution.”
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So, it’s back to the drawing board with their hired branding company, Destination Think! to look at other slogan ideas.
The six-month process of researching and designing the new brand cost the organization $150,000, but because Heineken never trademarked the phrase, Destination Think! never found it in their intellectual property database.
As a result, crafting a new slogan will be done free of charge.
“Many options were considered [originally,] but now we’re going to look at other ones, or maybe not even have one at all,” Nursey said, adding that many other cities across the province using “Destination” rebranding have chosen to forgo slogans altogether.
In the meantime, Destination Greater Victoria remains the new identity, and social media and advertising campaigns will begin to roll out slowly in the coming weeks.
“We’re very happy with the new brand,” Nursey said. “The work is very strong, and while this is regrettable, it’s just a tag line.”
