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October 17, 2003

Positive spin

In checking some broken weblinks from past posts, I stumbled onto the fact that the National Endowment for the Arts has a new website, and a new catchy slogan to go with it. Take a peek at the new site, which features the tagline:

It's an interesting return to nationalism for the agency, which was formed at the apex of America's Camelot complex and the cold war. Much of its early efforts in 'national treasure' organizations (ie, symphony, opera, ballet, etc.) seemed encouraged by a nationalistic need to have high culture equal to or better than our adversaries. The slogan is also an interesting move away from the more education and access equity positioning of the NEA after the culture wars...the arts serve community, make education work, etc.

Working in a business school, I may overanalyze branding efforts, and especially the power of the pithy purpose statement (flexing my alliteration muscles, sorry). But these taglines are often the best indicators of where an organization thinks it belongs, and what it thinks its audience wants to hear.

It will be interesting to see how this new positioning plays out in the actions and other communications of the agency. Chairman Dana Gioia already provided a yardstick to measure the process in his congressional testimony of last March.

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