The Wisconsin Tourism Federation (WTF) got word their precious acronym suddenly meant something new, something fresh, something bold.
This whole thing started when the logo got posted over at YourLogoMakesMeBarf. The Federation got scared and changed their name to The Tourism Federation of Wisconsin (TFW) and in one fell swoop a great opportunity of free viral marketing was out the window.
Kathy Flanigan of the Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee writes;
Folks at the Wisconsin Tourism Federation couldn’t possibly have seen how the Internet would change the lingo when it was established in 1979. But now that it’s been pointed out, the lobbying coalition might want to rethink using an acronym in the logo. To anyone online, WTF has a different meaning these days. And it’s not the kind of thing you want visitors thinking about when they think Wisconsin. One commenter on the site said: “I wonder if this cost $50,000 too, like the “Live Like You Mean It” posted in March. If so, Wisconsin taxpayers have another reason to scream … ” Time for a logo change? What do you think?
No, I don’t think so. Well, it’s too late now since they already went through with the change but that was a big mistake. They should have stayed with WTF — hell, they needed to add ‘?!’ at the end to make it even more awesome. I made a quick ad.
Now, I don’t have the time to fly to the awesome Wisconsin to check it out in person but if they had some nice WTF?! shirts I might have bought one of those instead.
[Via Language Log]
