The Indiana Office of Tourism Development announced its new tourism slogan for Indiana, “Honest to Goodness Indiana” to almost universal derision. It’s worse than the target of mockery from the 80s, “Wander Indiana.” (Hopefully we won’t be reverting to license plates with that wonderful pea green color scheme.) In his recent column, Matt Tully gets in on the fun.
Honest to Goodness Indiana? That’s our new slogan? Yep, that’s the slogan our state’s honchos actually think will convince people to take a Hoosier vacation. I assume it comes with a time machine so the state also can hire Opie Taylor and Gomer Pyle as its spokesmen. As one politico wrote on Twitter: What? Was “Golly gee whiz” taken?
No question that this one is awful. Not only is it pablum, it’s not very flattering pablum. And that’s my conclusion after taking a moment to intentionally remove my hipster-like impulse to reflexively sneer at the pretense of wholesomeness.
The sloganeers had a tough job. What makes Indiana unique in a positive way that might make other people want to come here? Tough call. But it’s not “honest to goodness.” I wonder if the sloganners bought into the rhetoric about how the coasts are unlivable, Sodom & Gomorrah hellholes because of the amoral liberals. “Sure they have money and they act like they’re enjoying themselves, but I’ll bet they’d spend some money on a return to a simpler time.”
So, I think they got it wrong on a reason out of staters might want to travel to spend money here. But they also got it wrong on what makes us unique. Cultural homogenization in the U.S. has made it tougher to identify things that make one state much different from another. Blame it on the highways, blame it on mass media, but the fact is that geographic distance doesn’t create a lot in the way of distinction among the people of the various states these days. We don’t even have the Daylight Saving Time thing or the high school basketball thing any more.
Physical geographic features are something you can’t homogenize, but we don’t have a lot to brag about. We’re mostly flat, our weather ranges from hot & humid to the deep freeze winter we’ve had this year. There are no mountains and there aren’t many significant water features. And, such natural spots as we have, we’re so reflexively anti-environment that people mostly wouldn’t want to come visit, let alone eat anything out of the waters there.
It’s easy to say what’s wrong with Indiana. Tough to say what’s right. I love my state, but if I’m being honest, a lot of that is probably because I was born here. If I was born elsewhere, I can’t say I’d gravitate to Indiana. We’re mostly a solid, friendly, dependable people. But wholesome? Not really any more than others, our self-pretensions to the contrary notwithstanding.
And, unfortunately, our lack of distinction is likely to grow if we’re not designing and building with care those parts of the state
we don’t find attractive and preserving with care those parts of the state we do find attractive. As it is now, we barely bother ourselves to maintain what has been built, let alone improve it.
If we keep our taxes low and our maintenance deferred, the only outside attention we’ll attract are those moneyed interests that see an opportunity to extract wealth from the state. Certainly not interests that want to live here or visit here and add to our wealth.
I’m a recent transplant to Indiana, having arrived here for work about 16 months ago. Our family moved from Oregon, before that I lived in California, Virginia and Washington, and I’ve spent a lot of time in New Jersey and New York on business. So, based on that, here’s what I find distinctive about Indiana.
People really, honest to God, are friendlier here. Visit the same country cafe more than twice, and not only will the waitresses know what you like to drink, the regular patrons will introduce themselves. Drivers are far more courteous than in any other state I’ve spent time in except maybe Oregon, but for sure, this is the only place I’ve spent any amount of time where people consistently yield the right of way correctly at four way stops. And they are likely to give a friendly wave. The courteous driving will make someone from California or New Jersey a little crazy for a while, but they’ll get used to it.
Supermarket produce is pretty much supermarket produce across the country. California has an advantage in the “fresh and local” thing in that you can grow most vegetables and many fruits year round. But when winter ends in Indiana and the local tomatoes, sweet corn and melons are in season, it’s wonderful. A summer salad made with just picked sweet corn tossed with basil, chopped tomatoes and some sweet onions from the garden is magic. Maybe the cold winters jut make us appreciate fresh produce, but it sure tastes great here in Indiana.
Then there is the meat. Now, I can’t figure this out. If there is anything that should be pretty uniform across the US, it’s the quality of the meat. But, and I swear this is true, the pork and beef by and large tastes better, “meatier”, here in Indiana. Granted, there are times I’d kill for a fresh Dungeness crab or just caught spring run Chinook or a winter Steelhead, but a wonderful braised pork shoulder eases the pain.
If the state would just loose the ridiculous liquor laws (still trying to figure our why cold beer is restricted, and why no booze in markets on Sundays makes sense in 2014) it’d be a food and drink paradise.
Indiana. It’s friendlier here.
Our corn and tomatoes are second to none, and I do think we do fall as well or better than anyone else.
“Enjoy the corn and tomatoes, get out before the snow flies. Come back for sectionals.”
“Indiana. It’s friendlier here.”
Which would have been a very nice slogan.
Yeah, but it’d require a caveat a mile long: “as long as you’re white, male, reasonably secure financially, heterosexual, cisgender, not interested in intellectual development…”
Indiana, it’s friendlier here. Dang, boy you shoulda gotten the $250,000.
Oh, holy sh!t, it’s Indiana!
Say Yes! To M!ch!gan!
By the way, I doubt Jim Nabors (and his partner) would feel all that welcome at this point,
Indiana: come for the low taxes, stay for the deteriorating infrastructure and intolerance.
Don’t drink the water and don’t breathe the air. I think the corn and tomatoes are an evolutionary reaction: grow big and fast because death is on the way.
Joe, Indiana taxes as a percent of income, are average among the states. As for intolerance, count up the number of minority Deans at state universities.
Make fun of “Wander Indiana” all you wmat but everyone remembers it
Jay nailed it. The slogan should be:
Indiana: It’s Meatier!
I mean, at least that gives you a reason to visit The Meat State ™.
I really don’t have anything to add, except embarrassment that I was forced to wear a “Wander Indiana” t-shirt as a small child. The fact I can remember wearing it is a testament to the pain and shame that campaign inflicted on even the youngest Hoosier.
The alternate slogans in the comments have also resulted in a painful coffee in nose situation.
I think the people who invent those Indiana slogans are from a neighboring state. It’s a conspiracy!