Our "Big Wild Life" will soon lose its big brown splat.
City boosters are holding a design contest, open to Anchorage residents, to find a replacement for the much-ridiculed splatlike logo, which debuted last month with the city's newest marketing campaign.
They claim it was always meant to be temporary.
After the splat was unveiled about six weeks ago, critics, commentators and pundits puzzled over what the logo was supposed to be. A giant bug flattened on a car windshield? A big pile of you-know-what squashed by a hiker's boot?
Bob Poe, president of the Anchorage Economic Development Corp., one of three groups involved in developing the marketing campaign, said it was never meant to be anything but a "placeholder" to go with the "Big Wild Life" slogan until the real logo was developed.
Poe's group, in partnership with the Anchorage Convention and Visitors Bureau and the city, last year paid marketing firms Nerland Agency of Anchorage and Stone Mantel of Colorado Springs $200,000 to come up with the new city identity.
It was the first phase of a three-phase project, and the initial work didn't include developing a logo, Poe said.
"It probably cost us $10," Poe said of the splat . "It was something the artist threw in and said, 'Here's something that can go behind (the slogan).' "
The second phase includes developing the logo, marketing programs, advertising campaigns and promotions. The idea is ultimately to use it in ads pitching the city to tourists and businesses.
"This brand is in its rawest form," said Bruce Bustamante, the convention bureau president, noting that it took a while for locals to embrace the "Wild About Anchorage" slogan his outfit has been using for years.
"But as we put music behind it, as we put critters dancing, as we filled in around it, it really gave that brand life and personality," Bustamante said. "That's what we're going to do with this."
So far, locals are the only ones who have seen or heard much about the new slogan -- which has been the topic of continuing discussion in newspaper editorials, letters to the editor and adn.com blogs, on talk radio and in coffee shops and bars throughout the city.
Much of the hullabaloo has focused on the splat. Critics grouse that the general public should have had more of a say in developing the new brand.
Mayor Mark Begich said the logo design contest will give everyone in town a chance to weigh in because it is open to everyone. The winning design will be selected through a public vote.
The group is accepting submissions through April 13. A seven-member committee named by the branding group will review them and narrow the pack to three to five finalists. They'll be posted on the Internet at www.bigwildlife.net, where a public vote will determine the winner.
The branding group will own the rights to all submissions, and the winner will receive what the contest sponsors are calling a "Big Wild Adventure" package of prizes valued at roughly $3,000.
Poe said the package, which will be donated by area businesses, is still in the works and will likely include things such as a show at the performing arts center, a ski holiday at Alyeska Resort, sled dog rides and similar outings.
Daily News reporter Richard Richtmyer can be reached at rrichtmyer@adn.com or 257-4344.
