First city of sails of the Pacific, eh ... A

By BERNARD ORSMAN

The City of Sails. First City of the Pacific. Auckland A.

Over the past three years the Queen City has changed its jersey as often as the Auckland Blues.

Now the council is thinking of returning to the City of Sails, a slogan that has already entered the popular lexicon, eh?

Only 11 months ago, "Auckland A" was developed by the Saatchi & Saatchi advertising agency to rival "Absolutely Positively Wellington" and "Of Course You Can Canterbury" as a catch-cry for civic pride.

The slogan was unveiled as part of the Auckland Festival and involved a phonetic play on Eh and A. Eh equalled A as in Auckland, as in A1, as in the shape of our volcanic cones.

It also came with a two-handed A-shaped greeting made with crossed fingers, a gesture that already carried a female anatomical reference.

The campaign bombed and the council continued with Auckland City - First City of the Pacific. That became the catchcry of the strategic plan under the previous council but never really caught on.

Now a new councillor, Doug Armstrong, is pushing for a return to "Auckland City of Sails", the logo developed at the time of the local government reorganisation in 1989 and used by Tourism Auckland to promote the city.

He believes the slogan "City of Sails" formalises a well-used slogan.

Councillors will debate the branding options - and their costs - today.

The cheapest proposal, putting the Tourism Auckland City of Sails logo on banners at key waterfront sites would cost $10,000.

The dearest, developing guidelines for a new logo, would set the ratepayers back $30,000.

Replacing every piece of city ware, from signs to stationery, with a new logo has been costed at $3 million and is considered out of the question.

Auckland Mayor John Banks said Wellington had led the way with its city branding and he liked the idea of Auckland officially becoming the City of Sails.

"I would be very interested in what Aucklanders think," he said.

Councillor Penny Sefuiva said The First City of the Pacific expressed the Polynesian flavour that was Auckland and the City of Sails applied to its boating and economic development.

"I'd like to see the two linked."