Province rolls out 'Saskatchewan!' logo
Last Updated: Friday, January 26, 2007 | 4:30 PM CT
CBC News
The Saskatchewan government wants to rebrand itself "Saskatchewan!", although the Opposition says it's off the mark with the new PR campaign.
A new logo — the province's name with an exclamation mark — is a key part of the campaign, said documents released Friday by the opposition Saskatchewan Party.
The Saskatchewan government has warned staff about 'improper uses' of the new logo: stretched, distorted or missing the exclamation mark.
The plan is to use the "wordmark" on advertising, highway signs and other displays, the documents said, to get the message across that "Saskatchewan is the best place in Canada for young people to live, work and raise a family."
However, according to a 29-page book of guidelines being circulated to government departments, the logo is for "optimistic" messages and not for announcements concerning coroners' inquests, forest fires or West Nile virus outbreaks.
For that, and for news releases generally, the province will continue to use the traditional wheat-sheaf logo and the Saskatchewan name without punctuation.
Saskatchewan Party MLA Rod Gantefoer said he could see the value of promoting the province outside its borders, but an internal campaign suggests the rebranding is just pre-election hype.
The government released more information about the campaign later in the day.
NDP Premier Lorne Calvert told a Saskatoon audience the $1.5 million campaign would let people inside and outside the province know that Saskatchewan is the best place to "live, work and build a future."
The campaign will include television ads, which will debut Feb. 4 — Super Bowl Sunday.
