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Written on March 10, 2010 by Edwin Wong

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YourSingapore: One of the Worst?

Come electrify yourself in yourSingapore.

(photo credits:Chinnian)

Just when some of us thought of ‘Uniquely Singapore’ was bad enough, Singapore Tourism Board (STB) spent 8 months of intense research and brainstorming with its agencies to come up with a new, bland tagline ‘YourSingapore’

If you have been to Orchard Road of late, you would have easily spotted the new banners from STB littering the sides of the roads with different variations of the logo.

Most of the banners, however, have been badly designed. For one, the banners leave a lot of white space around the actual logo and commuters would have to squint to even spot the wording inside the different variations of the logo, shaped to resemble Singapore.

Needless to say, tourists who have just been on our shores would have no clue that these logo variations are actually based on the shape of our country.

The official logo of ‘YourSingapore’ is a mix-mesh of colored squares that reflect nothing of what’s essentially Singapore.

If anything, the logo resembles the hodgepodge of graphic intensive rectangles that highlight the main attractions of Singapore on the YourSingapore website, meant for potential tourists to plan their itinerary in Singapore.

The website however, is described by CNN as “messy” and “difficult to navigate.”

This is most certainly true as nobody would know where to first navigate on the YourSingapore website, with a confusing array of links on the front page easily distracting one’s focus.

The new YourSingapore logo that should have been the focal point and attention of this campaign is no bigger than the size of my thumb on the webpage.

According to an official from STB, the idea behind the new tagline is for potential tourists to personalize their travel experience. But YourSingapore seems to suggest that Singapore has nothing strongly unique of her own that should invite the tourists to her shores.

For if Singapore had something strongly her own, surely this something would be able to resist the moulding and shaping of foreigners or tourists into something of their own?

The word ‘YourSingapore’ oddly also does not have a space in between, and this is perhaps a reflection of the new campaign’s emphasis on the digital aspects of its marketing, since no spaces can be entered in website addresses.

But this really pales against other more notable and long sustaining tourism taglines of other countries — Amazing Thailand, Definitely Dubai and Malaysia, Truly Asia, all of which have a really good ring to it. YourSingapore, on the other hand, sounds relatively monotonic.

The new tagline is also not without its controversies.

The Singapore Democratic Party has a strong online presence due to the success of its party website, YourSDP.org.

On Monday, the website threw up a very interesting proposition: Did STB copy their much used ‘your’ prefix?

SDP has pointed out that it has been using its very catchy party slogan of ‘Your Voice, Your Party’ for several years running, and even changed its website to reflect its tagline.

More importantly, it has been suggested by them also that the new tagline points to how STB is ‘tone-deaf’ to the everyday man on the street’s sentiments against the high recent influx of foreigners in Singapore.

“In the current atmosphere where locals are seething over the PAP’s bringing in of foreigners to replace them, the pitching of Your Singapore to non-Singaporeans,” and telling to ‘come, make Singapore your own’ must surely go down as one of the most tone-deaf acts in the history of governance” the website stated.

If YourSingapore was a portal inviting Singaporeans to come truly make Singapore their own, through exchanging interesting and creative ideas for Singapore’s future, or simply as a discussion board to seek opinion for a diverse range of topics, it might perhaps have been a good slogan.

But surely not for foreigners to come make Singapore their own.

How long will this tagline survive before it is replaced like its predecessor, Uniquely Singapore? The latter took 6 years. I’m thinking significantly less.

We took our stand and think that the new tagline/logo is bad. What’s your take on it? And why do you think so? What taglines for Singapore could you come up with? Discuss them on the thread below!

657011 CommentsYourSingapore%3A+One+of+the+Worst%3F2010-03-10+13%3A56%3A47Edwin+Wong on "YourSingapore: One of the Worst?"

Comedy Night on Wed, 10th Mar 2010 2:18 pm

"Singapore: Please go see your MP." LOL

Gerard Luo on Wed, 10th Mar 2010 2:41 pm

How ironic. Foreigners, come make Singapore YOUR OWN!

sgmortal on Thu, 11th Mar 2010 12:24 am

Feedback to the STB:
Uniquely YOUR Singapore!

The Singapore Daily » Blog Archive » Daily SG: 11 Mar 2010 on Thu, 11th Mar 2010 11:16 am

[...] In The Wind: Singapore Press Holdings and Abu Dhabi Media Company – The Kent Ridge Common: YourSingapore: One of the Worst? – TOC: Summoning hither the dolphins – Sam’s Thoughts: Eugene Loh’s obsession with [...]

Ambridge on Thu, 11th Mar 2010 4:35 am

hahaha

Alien Citizen on Thu, 11th Mar 2010 7:35 am

Oh that's exactly the intention: an invitation for foreigners to come and make Singapore theirs, since the locals are rejecting the country.

To understand what I mean by "reject" you must understand the PAP.

They see themselves and country as indistinguishable, and so to oppose or reject the PAP is to reject Singapore altogether too. You may disagree and see Party and State as separate entities, but the PAP don't and in reality – at least for now – it is practically indistinguishable. Perhaps if you think a one party state, where state is party and vice versa, as in China and North Korea, then you may begin to understand.

And so since the locals, the alienated locals, or perhaps an increasing proportion, is rejecting PAP, the time has come to replenish the aliens, citizens albeit, with those who wants to make Singapore theirs, ie those that worship and adore the PAP. And it is an invitation to all the world.

Guest on Thu, 11th Mar 2010 7:47 am

Or maybe it's as simple as a welcoming invitation to tourists (you know that massive source of income for locals) to …come on, make the place your own… you know like that phrase 'make yourself at home' ?

Might that be it? Nah not nefarious enough!

Fred on Thu, 11th Mar 2010 4:29 pm

Being encouraged as a consumer to find out more/generating interest is a key aspect of slogans. Unfortunately, YourSingapore isn't encouraging and isn't saying anything about Singapore at all, even though that is what it should.

Singapore is known as a small, clean, "fine" city and as a shopping, tax and party haven. There should be more emphasis on history and heritage. After all, tourists want to see something, and not only all those high profile attractions. This is also part of how you get to know a country. Wasting such an opportunity is quite terrible indeed.

In this regard, a more suitable slogan would be Experience Singapore (hear what I did there). Doesn't really say anything either, but it encourages more action, especially so when combined with a more cheery, easy to navigate website and other campaigns. I'm thinking something similar to the Moove Media cows.

Finally, catchy slogans that say something and encourage action are not possible to devise without public input and going out in person. I have the feeling that this is exactly what happened here: No one bothered to go and see what's there = lack of inspiration. Public participation is important to get slogans and campaigns right and relevant the first time. It doesn't give a good and lasting impression if an entirely new slogan is devised every few years because the old one didn't do its job.

The Singapore Daily » Blog Archive » Weekly Roundup: Week 11 on Sat, 13th Mar 2010 10:26 am

PAPRectusDominus on Sun, 14th Mar 2010 4:38 pm

As if PAP hasn't prostituted Singapore to foreigners enough already, now they're going all out to cater Singapore to foreigners. Might as well just offer Singapore to China as a vassal state!

mapquest on Thu, 15th Apr 2010 4:17 am

who really knows who has done what with singapore

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