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Can Baltimore project a better image? It’s Baltimore’s turn to flail wildly in search of new positioning that will convince would-be tourists that there’s more to the city than what gets shown on hard-boiled cop dramas like Homicide, The Corner and The Wire. Landor Associates is on board for a repositioning, now that taglines like “Baltimore is better” and “Baltimore. Believe” have fallen on deaf ears. (The city has also gone through a slew of failed monikers, including Crabtown, Charm City, Queen City of the Patapsco and Nickel Town.) A former mayor once painted “The city that reads” on park benches, but vandals, referring to the high rate of unwanted pregnancy in town, changed it to “The city that breeds.” One other unlikely possibility: reviving the nickname “Mobtown,” which Baltimore earned through street riots in 1812. —Posted by Tim Nudd

January 9, 2006 | Permalink

Comments

No, it's actually known as the "City that Bleeds," and the best slogan of them all, at least the one more resepcted and known is Charm City. Nothing from Landor is going to beat that. Even at $500,000.

Posted by: Rob | Jan 9, 2006 3:49:39 PM

I will always refer to this place as charm city. Get in on it...doesn work period!

Posted by: C Love | Jun 2, 2006 9:04:14 AM

Baltimore has had many slogan monikers: the best in the sense of highest aspiration and firm place in this country's history is "Baltimore: Monument City", bestowed by John Quincy Adams in a visit in 1827.

The phrase was corrupted to "Monumental City', but it is the city of monuments, not the city of monumentals.

See:
Christopher Columbus - 1792 (really!, and the first in America to the explorer)

Battle Monument, War of 1812 - started 1815 finished 1825 and 1st USA War Monument

George Washington - started 1815 finished 1825 and 2nd USA monument after Hagerstown MD

Edgar Allen Poe - 1921 "listening in rapt attention to a divine melody and a new rhythm in his art.", Moses Ezekiel, sculptor.

Isn't this the simple, obvious and strong statement of an ever changing Baltimore? When visitors come to Baltimore and seek why we are Monument City, they will form their own conclusions and send out postcards to others: the poor sights of a city may be remarked but the great sights of that same city will be remembered forever.

Posted by: James Solin | Jun 4, 2006 7:14:31 PM

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