Promoting our warm soul

Evansville (Ind.) Courier & Press: As we remember it, once before Indiana leaders paid professionals to come up with a slogan they hoped would attract visitors to the Hoosiers state. The slogan was “Restart Your Engines,” although we believed it was a non-starter.

It was a takeoff on the Indianapolis 500 race and the famous instruction to “Start your engines.” At the time, we envisioned jumper cables and dead batteries, and wondered how that image might be received.

Anyway, we learned last week that Indiana now has another tourism slogan, this one designed to promote the state’s warm soul. It’s called a “consumer brand” and is titled “Honest to Goodness Indiana.”

According to The Associated Press, the new campaign comes as Indiana prepares for its statehood bicentennial in 2016, and is intended to emphasize that the people and experiences in Indiana are genuine.

Although we don’t expect this slogan to draw visitors who don’t already know about Indiana’s quiet nature, the slogan is kind of pleasant.

And the image it calls up is certainly more pleasant than a dead battery and jumper cables.