In a new multimedia campaign, the city of Houston showcases the city's virtues and idiosyncrasies according to celebrities who call the area home. Or as the NYTimes put it this week:
Yao Ming's Houston is not Beyonce Knowles' Houston, and not just because the 7-foot-6-inch Rockets star needs two more feet of head room. George and Barbara Bush's Houston is not George Foreman's Houston, either, nor Dr. Denton Cooley’s, nor A. J. Foyt’s....If this booming world center of energy traders, doctors and space scientists is hard to define, with a problem even worse than a negative image — no image at all — the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau has a remedy....(For Mr. Foyt, it was driving 200 m.p.h. on the 610 Loop — back when the traffic wasn’t so bad; for Dr. Cooley, it is his “full schedule of surgeries.” And Yao — well, Yao likes Yao Restaurant & Bar where, he says, “I know the owner.”)
The city's approach stems in part from its lack of distinct identity among American cities, despite being the country's fourth largest, just behind Chicago in population. This reputation for banality puts extra weight on the personal perspective:
Other cities and states have tried variations on “My Houston,” but this subtropical metropolis of 2.2 million people, the nation’s most sprawling city, spread over 630 square miles — large enough to encompass Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Detroit — has a special burden: a reputation for banality, even ugliness.
The approach makes an interesting counterpoint to the Toronto Unlimited campaign, mentioned here several years ago, for a city attempting to use its nebulous global image to its advantage.
Two of the "My Houston" ads, featuring fashion designer Chloe Dao, formerly of Project Runway; and "art car" artist Mark Bradford, below.
Clashing with planners who tend to see Houston's explosive growth as ugly and unsustainable, futurist Joel Kotkin contends that the place is indeed vital, exciting, and full of possibility. It may not have the physical beauty or cache of San Francisco or Barcelona, but what it lacks in geographical interest, it makes up for with human capital and tolerance.
In an era when many other cities try to position themselves with trendier distinctions (as “smart growth” exemplars or as magnets for high-income households, for instance), Mayor Bill White, a Democrat, is happy for Houston to be known simply as an “opportunity city,” which is a pretty good description of what the place has been since its inception: a venue where people who work hard can get ahead....
The answer, I have come to understand as I have worked in Houston as a reporter and consultant, echoes something that the late Soichiro Honda once told me: “More important than gold and diamonds are people.” This critical resource, more than anything, accounts for Houston’s headlong drive toward becoming not only the leading city of Texas and the South, but also a player on the global scene: it is emerging as one of the world’s great cities....
Lauding Houston to urban planners is not much different than extolling red meat at a convention of vegans....Ultimately, it’s a question of defining what makes a city great. Many city planners today focus largely on aesthetics, the arts, and the perception of being “cool.” Academics and many economic-development experts link urban success to cities’ appeal to the “creative class” of college-educated young people. In this calculus, the traditional practice of gauging a city’s success by studying patterns of population or employment growth, or noting the opportunities available for working-class or middle-class families to flourish, rarely registers as important.
For contrast to the Convention and Visitors' Bureau high-gloss approach, look to a marketing campaign entitled "Houston. It's Worth It," produced by an independent advertising agency four years earlier. In the campaign, the details that usually inspire complaints about Houston--cockroaches, sprawl, humidity--are foregrounded in an ironic way, with a clean typeface. The idea behind the guerrilla campaign, developed by ttweak, is that the city's inconveniences are heavily outweighed by the its everyday attributes, optimistic atmosphere, lack of pretense, and personality:
"Houston. It's Worth It." was created believing that acknowledging the difficulties of living in Houston only makes the reasons why it's worth it more compelling. We can all reach a consensus on the relatively few complications of living in Houston; the reasons it's worth it, on the other hand, are as diverse and numerous as its citizens. "Houston. It's Worth It." is a conduit for those reasons.
The city's lack of definition, and a narrative that is necessarily fluid, ends up being incredibly productive. A great takeaway impression.
Below: a few images of Houston captured by the photoblog Phototainable, searching for personality of place.
As commenter #2099 in the "Houston. It's Worth It." guestbook says, screw conventional thinking: "we defy logic, but we still rock." And #2064: "I feel normal here. Maybe it is because I am imperfect, like this city."
Smartly, the "It's Worth It" folks have come out with a coffee-table book of photography juxtaposed with quotes from commenters like those above (many thanks, Randy!) and other clever schwag to accompany the campaign.
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