Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Stephen Fry’s Malayan pantoums
I agree with McMillan about Fry – he does seem, damn him, the complete renaissance man. McMillan is a lively and interesting poet, who has written much whimsical and humorous stuff, but who has a serious side too. I like “The Er Barnsley Seascapes” for their surreal quality. He has an excellent show on Radio 3, too, which I imagine no-one listens to as it’s broadcast, because it goes out on a Saturday night. Another reason to thank the BBC Listen Again thingy. Anyway, now you know what a pantoum is, don’t you?
Leeds, Live it, Love it > Visitors > Home
Here’s the website displaying that logo. Now, call me a cynic if you like Duncan, but that copyright sign is next to the word Leeds, so it does look like you’ve attempted to copyright the word. Amazon have trade marked “And you’re done” I notice, and lots of other familiar phrases now have the TM symbol after them, and yet Dunc (as I like to think of him) says that no everyday word can be copyrighted. I’m sure he’s right, so why do the powers that be allow the trademarking of common phrases?
So here’s the logo that doesn’t copyright the word Leeds. It sure looks like it does though, doesn’t it?
Just saw this whizzing by on the flickr Zeitgeist stream…
Here’s a turn up for the books – after days of no doubt frenzied discussions, Marketing Leeds have responded. My correspondent is Duncan (we are apparently already on first name terms) who tells me that “as you will no doubt be aware, it is impossible to copyright a placename, or indeed any standard English word. The copyright symbol included in our brand design therefore refers to the image, form and colourways of the logo as a whole, which, as you will understand, do require legal protection from copyright infringement.”
Don’t you love the use of “colourways”? Can someone tell me the difference between “colourway” and “colour”? No, thought not. So it seems that we can go on referring to Leeds, but not in that particular, er, colourway. That’s a relief.
Predictably, the dynamic folks at Marketing Leeds maintained a dignified silence in response to my e-mail, and after all, who could blame them? How were they to know that Hong Kong had been running a major marketing campaign for two years using the very slogan they had come up with? It’s not as if Jackie Chan, the star of the promotion, was a well-known figure, was it? And when you’ve only got £150,000 to play with, you can’t expect every tiny problem to be sorted out, can you? The business editor of the Yorkshire Evening Post, Nigel Scott, was, in contrast, admirably swift in his reply to me on the copyright issue. Apparently, they haven’t copyrighted “Leeds” but the slogan “Leeds Live it Love it”. I wonder what the Hong Kong equivalent of m’learned friends will think about that?
Incidentally, when I were a lad, the slogan for the Evening Post was “there’s nowt like it at night!” You can imagine the Marketing Leeds suits spluttering into their canapes at that….
Guardian Unlimited | Arts news | ‘They said you’ve a call from the Nobel committee. I said, why?’: Pinter, it seems, is pretty surprised to be awarded the Nobel. And, as might have been expected, he too feels it may be as much to do with his politics as with his plays. He says: “But I suspected that they must have taken my political activities into consideration since my political engagement is very much part of my work. It’s interwoven into many of my plays. But I will find out more when I go to Stockholm in December. I’m told I am required to make a 45-minute speech which is the longest speech I will ever have made. Of course, I intend to say whatever it is I think. I may well address the state of the world. I’ll be interested myself to find out how I’m going to articulate the whole thing.”
I notice that the Marketing Leeds people are shamelessly sticking with their Live It Love It slogan, and have even managed to copyright the word Leeds – how did that happen? Surely that can’t be right? I’ll ask them and report back. In the meantime, I think I’ll copyright, oooh, “Tunbridge Wells”… And has there ever been a more pathetic invitation than “We will soon be launching our consumer-focused websites, where everyone will be able to live and love Leeds all day every day”
Yuk!
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Arts | Pinter wins Nobel literary prize
I suppose this is not entirely unexpected, though it will cause much harrumphing in certain quarters. I can’t help feeling that this is not so much an award for his literary output – what has he done in the last few years, really? – but for his political views, which, I dare say, are in tune with those of the Nobel committee. And of course, given that he has a very serious medical condition, it’s maybe a question of if not now, when? Should be an interesting acceptance speech!
BBC NEWS | England | West Yorkshire | Row over second-hand city slogan
This is a hoot (Leeds in-joke). Two things need to be said. First, in answer to the councillors who asked whether the city has got value for £150,000 research and launch costs, the answer is NO. The second thing, leaving aside the breathtaking incompetence of a firm that can charge that sort of money for a second hand slogan, is – what the hell does it mean? Live what? Love what? The “it” can only refer to the city, so I suppose charitably we could say the slogan suggests that the reader will love Leeds – the verb’s in the command form, so we don’t apparently have a choice. But live it? How do I “live” a city? If we must have marketing slogans for places – and I seriously doubt we do – at least let’s have ones that mean something. It’s asking too much of course. Personally, if I were Leeds council, I’d be asking for my money back. And if they really want a slogan, organise a competition in the city’s schools, and give the winner a book token. It’ll be bound to come up with a better idea than this vacuous nonsense. It makes the “Marketing Leeds” puffery all the more laughable – their website says ” Come back soon to see how the cream of Leeds enjoyed the Marketing Leeds launch party and the much-anticipated unveiling of the new Leeds brand.”
I’m tempted to add that Leeds has a city motto -Pro rege et lege – that at least has some dignity. The current campaign, apart from being nicked from Hong Kong of course, is more reminiscent of Macd*nald’s “I’m lovin’ it” than anything. But that’s what comes of trying to sell a place as if it were a burger, I suppose.
