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Need A Slogan For Commuter Road Signs
Posted By: mktrenum* on 8/28/2005 1:51 PM (CST)	250 Points
Our agricultural based town needs catchy slogans for road signs to gain support in defeating a proposed quarry and directing people to our civic association website. Our target market would be suburban commuters, mostly white collar professionals and government employees, that commute daily on the busy, traffic clogged 2 lane road that the quarry would affect. Nokesville is a small rural town in the Washington DC suburbs. Due to special zoning, Nokesville has been protected from dense development and is mainly 2-10 acre homes and dairy and equestrian farms, although we adjoin brand new intense development. We are known for a big green barn painted with a cow and pig proclaiming "Welcome to Nokesville" that is on Rt. 28 at the town entrance. When people think Nokesville, they usually think cows and horses....i.e. the local high school is commonly called 'cow pie' high. A company has applied for a permit to dig a 500 acre quarry 1 mile west from our town center on a major traffic clogged commuter road (2 lanes) called Rt. 28. The quarry would be known as the "Nokesville Quarry" or the "28 Quarry". This would put 800 + dump trucks on that road every day, in addition to clogging small rural side roads. They have applied 4 previous times dating back to the late 60's and have always been defeated. The stakes are higher now with more money and a PR campaign on their part. We have a friendly relationship with the highly dense neighborhoods just 3 miles east of us, but we need them to see the impact the quarry would have on their commute. Most of these neighborhoods are brand new and the residents don't even know about the quarry or the previous attempts. The traffic would directly affect them as the 800+ trucks would be leaving Nokesville and heading east just like all of the commuters from their neighborhoods. We are going to be posting 4 x 4 signs along Rt. 28 to get support. We'll also be distributing flyers with more specific information. We're having trouble coming up with slogans that would be catchy and readable for 4 x 4 signs. We would like the slogans to be reflected in all the materials that we put out for the public and to direct people to our website for more information. We also weren't sure if we should use the humorus aspect of cows to catch people's attention and gain media attention as well. Any slogan help would be greatly appreciated.

Posted by: bgrebow	Accepted Answer
8/28/2005 8:30 PM (CST)
How about So & so has rocks in their head So & so is trying to milk you! Their way? Udder nonsense! I'll try to think of more... As a humorous touch you might want to listen to Dana Lyon's song "Cows with Guns". Go to the Web site (http://www.cowswithguns.com), click on Music, then Listen to the title song.

Posted by: mktrenum*	Author Response
8/28/2005 9:25 PM (CST)
Clever ideas....similar to a Chick Fil A type campaign with cows holding protest signs with slogans.

Posted by: SRyan ;]	Accepted Answer
8/29/2005 6:30 AM (CST)
You might want to consider getting a second website, even if it's only one page. It could include a link back to your civic association site. Why do that? Because you could put a clever URL on your signs to get attention and pique curiousity. Something like www.madquarrycow.com might do the trick. If I think of other ideas, I'll be back... ;]

Posted by: vic	Accepted Answer
8/29/2005 9:28 AM (CST)
"If you think this is SLOW...vote Quarry NO!"

Posted by: michael	Accepted Answer
8/29/2005 9:46 AM (CST)
"Their gonna ROCK your world" "Rock-on, traffic flow off" "Quarry or quagmire?" "Quarry make you quezie?(sp?)" "Slow traffic ahead, next 25 years" Michael

Posted by: browncatfan	Accepted Answer
8/29/2005 12:22 PM (CST)
This is fun...lots of good ones up there already. But here are a few more... Dig the quarry, and you'd better "dig" traffic, too! Say yes to rocks, and you'll roll a lot slower. Rocky road ahead! Vote NO on the quarry. Approve the rock quarry, and we'll be jammin' a lot! Rock OFF! Vote no on the quarry. If you want to move quickly, you'd better move quickly: vote NO on the quarry!

Posted by: ladams	Accepted Answer
8/29/2005 8:00 PM (CST)
Some good ideas! How about Vote for the Quarry and you'll be sorry! Vote 28 Quarry and it'll be slow mooooving . . . Rock the vote! Vote NO on Nokesville Quarry! Put the NO back in Nokesville. Vote NO on the Quarry! Hope this helps. LA

Posted by: mktrenum*	Author Response
8/29/2005 8:27 PM (CST)
There are some great ideas here for the signs. We're looking into a separate website name....much catchier and easier to remember than our association name. Technical clarification question: Unfortunately we, as citizens, don't get to vote personally on the issue. Our local County Board of the Supervisors are the 8 people who actually vote. Our intention with the signs is to get people fired up and excited enough to contact their supervisor and say to them "Vote No to that quarry". So should we use the term 'vote' on the signs and if not, what should we use instead? More questions: I explained the cow pun ideas to our committee last night and they loved it. A suggestion was made to have the signs change every two weeks for a total of 4 different signs over 8 weeks. The purpose would be to put out more updated info each time as we draw closer to the hearing. What would we have to do to make people connect all the signs and understand that they were related....is using a gimic like the cow holding each sign enough? Is changing signs every two weeks an effective way to market our position? Thanks again for all the ideas and global brainstorming on this issue.

Posted by: ASVP/ChrisB	Accepted Answer
8/30/2005 1:31 AM (CST)
Some ideas: Traffic problems? Grit (^in) your teeth! Oppose the XYZ Inc Quarry - Call 1-800-123 4567 to say NO! We grow your beef and pork. Want grit? Some responses: 1. The campaign objective is aimed at the minds of these 8 supervisors. They may or may not see the signs. People may or may not call them to protest (most won't). Your mission - to get the signs in the local newspaper and on local radio and TV. Somehow you have to get the whole debate out in the open. Not decided behind the "Group of 8" closed doors. 2. The cows holding the signs sounds like a great concept. They need to be awful big though... Maybe repaint that Barn with the message? 3. Yes, use the Vote term... How did these supervisors get their jobs? Are they elected, or appointed by the State? Someone, somewhere in the decision chain WAS elected and WANTS to be re-elected. Find them and drag them into the argument. 4. Get the home numbers of these supervisors and commence a sleep-deprivation campaign. Get groups of people to call them every hour, 24/7 until the meeting, to put across the anti-quarry point of view, calmly, coherently, and logically. 5. Figure the economic and environmental impact of the quarry - the pro-development lobby will be talking up job creation and value into the local economy. You need to find out how good their numbers are, and figure in the loss of jobs due to loss of farmland productivity, impact on wildlife and water resources, vibration factors due to rock-breaking equipment, seismic effects of explosions used to expose fresh rock-face, vibration and settling damage to housing and other buildings, the cost of traffic delays, truck damage and dust burden on local roads and vegetation, etc. It's not just about rocks. These people are taking your pristine natural environment, and they're gonna make it all dusty like a moonscape. Remember: You're Mad, and You're Not Gonna Take It Any More! (Go rent a copy of the Movie Network starring Peter Finch, and you'll understand!) Best of luck. Come back and let us know what happened!

Posted by: browncatfan	Accepted Answer
8/31/2005 10:46 AM (CST)
Some cow puns for the signs.: We've got a beef with the quarry. The quarry would be an udder disaster! Herd about the quarry? Call ______and tell 'em NO! Put the quarry idea out to pasture! A quarry just a stone's throw away? Mooooooooove it!

Posted by: mktrenum*	Author Response
8/31/2005 12:17 PM (CST)
You guys are incredible. Wish I had asked your advice two months ago and we wouldn't have wasted so much time. I wish we could change the big green barn, but it's considered a cultural landmark ;) so I don't the owner would agree, but she would possibly let us put one of the signs near by it. Forgive my lack of forum etiquette, but do I accept the responses now even though I still have questions and could use more sign slogan ideas, or do I wait until I need no further help and close the request? Your ideas were just the spark we needed! Everyone is so excited when they hear about the campaign and we think if farmers can get excited about it, the media is going to love it! Update: We found a teen who can do website development stuff. Because the 'mad cows protesting' idea sounded so funny to him (he loved the cows with guns website) he said he'd help us establish our site and put our info on it at no cost, besides the cost of the site. We're in the process of doing a cow photoshoot to get an appropriate spokesmodel cow for our signs. Just think, a new supercow model could be discovered right in our little town. We're developing our list of slogans for the signs. Keep the Cow and rock pun sign ideas coming. There is also a lot of cornfields in our area if you think it would be good to do throw in corn puns or any other farming puns as well. We'll need many puns if we change several signs every two weeks. New question: We've never had to do a press release before. I have no experience in that at all. Does anyone have any ideas about what the press release should look like to get maximum attention and who should I send it to besides the local newspapers and the Wash Post (our major local paper) ?

Posted by: bgrebow	Member Response
8/31/2005 12:24 PM (CST)
(laughing out loud) Glad you enjoyed Cows with Guns. Hope your campaign is successful! Brian P.S. You wait till your forum is closed, the site people direct you through the awarding of points, etc.

Posted by: Shelley, MProfs	Moderator Response
8/31/2005 5:57 PM (CST)
MK, you can close this question whenever you're ready. Keep in mind, though, that after just a few days it will get "stale" and few people will see your posting or respond to it. If you have new questions, you'll get better results on the forum by starting a new thread. One piece of advice: Unless your teen is truly and exceptionally talented, I would avoid using him as a web developer. You are likely to end up with an amateurish site that undermines your cause instead of helping it. Maybe you can appeal to some local professionals to donate their time instead?

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