With ‘easy,' ‘apple' taken, city seeks ‘Big Friendly'

By Steve Lackmeyer
Business Writer

Appearing before a gathering hosted by the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber, Centennial Commission director Blake Wade said Thursday his office has applied for a trademark for "the Big Friendly” just in case Oklahoma City might want it as a catchphrase.
"I really like to think of that ‘Big Friendly' as an opportunity our fathers might want to look at — is Oklahoma City a friendly city?” Wade said. "And I think absolutely it is.”

Wade presented a slideshow of Centennial-sponsored projects completed since the commission was formed in 1999. In Oklahoma City alone, they include the Capitol dome, the Oklahoma History Center, the United Way fountain and plaza in Lower Bricktown, clocks throughout the metro area and several downtown murals. Coming up: the American Indian Cultural Center, Jim Thorpe sports hall of fame, completion of the Land Run Monument, and the Oklahoma Heritage Association's new museum in the Mid-Continent Life Insurance building.

"Between public, private, federal, grant funds and sponsorships, we've seen more than $90 million (impact),” Wade said. "The economic impact of all these projects in the future will be unbelievable for Oklahoma City and Oklahoma.”

Wade said his mission, launched with an appointment by then Gov. Frank Keating, had an unremarkable start with a presentation on the dome to a crowd in Fairview. The audience walked out, Wade said, reflecting an estimated 49 percent of the population against completing the Capitol dome at that time.

Now, Wade says, it's difficult to find anyone not proud of the new state landmark. Wade said his staff had to work hard to place projects across the state, but concluded that task has been accomplished. While working with smaller towns, Wade learned residents were scared to come to the Capitol, with its lead-in being a Lincoln Boulevard blighted with old motels, dilapidated buildings and seedy businesses.

That fear led to Lincoln Renaissance, a redevelopment of the stretch that included removal of blighted businesses and creation of tree-lined boulevard leading to and from the Capitol.

"I've heard from all over the state of how one of the most beautiful views is coming into the Capitol from the north or south,” Wade said.

Wade said upcoming events will be a boom to the city, including the Oklahoma Centennial Expo, the Oklahoma Centennial Parade and "The Spectacular,” a concert scheduled for Oct. 14 that he promises will feature some of Oklahoma's best-known performers.

Wade said the only barrier to capturing another $16 million in private funding is whether the required matching money will be provided in the closing weeks of the legislative session.

"We have the $16 million in these small communities, and we desperately need the matching dollars to complete the overall mission for the Oklahoma Centennial,” Wade said.

Among those listening to Wade's pitch was veteran Oklahoma City ad man and civic booster Ray Ackerman, who applauded the possibility of trademarking "the Big Friendly” — an idea thought up by fellow civic booster Lee Allan Smith.

"I wish it were my idea — it's Lee Allan Smith's idea,” Ackerman said. "I can't think of anything better for Oklahoma City. The people who don't think it's so good say ‘Everybody thinks they're friendly.' Well that's what makes it so good for us to get it trademarked.”

I can't decide if I like it or not.

You're just being unfriendly.


Just kidding..

I'm with you JBrown ... I sort of like it.. but I'm wondering if it's a little 'hokey'...

New Orleans - Big Easy
New York - Big Apple

Oklahoma - Big Friendly

hmmmm, I'll have to think about it .. (after I go have a road rage incident and cut someone off ).. lol - I'm so friendly!

Any other biggies?

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It's certainly a nice complement to the "Drive Friendly" signs I used to see all the time on the turnpikes.

I think the Big Friendly is a great nickname and in my experience it's dead-on accurate.

Karried, I think your concerns about hokeyness are not without merit, but let's face it, how many nicknames out there lack any semblence of hokeyness? Nicknames are supposed to be highly casual creatures and thus there's always going to be a cheese factor with which to reckon.

My wife and I had a lengthy discussion about this over coffee, and decided that we would prefer "The Friendly City" because A. It's appropriate and B. "The Windy City" is already taken. Running a tight second place was "Oklahoma City...Global Warming Free and Proud Of It"!!!

I prefer "The Big Friendly" over "The Friendly City".

Considering our ranking on National obesity stats, maybe "Big" IS more appropriate...

I don't have a problem with it. (But, I'm just friendly like that.)

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"The Big Friendly" is really cheezy, but so is the Big Apple and the Big Easy. If we throw a paramount PR campaign, packaged with a team Stern sends our way (hopefully not the Supersonics), MAPS3, CoreToShore, inflated smaller campaigns, and the Centennial, headlined with "the Big Friendly", the name could be a huge payoff.

I think it could work.

Hmm, I'm going to have to think about this while I eat my watermelon vegetable.

I, too, prefer "The Friendly City". I just think it sounds better than ripping off the "Big" prefix.

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Ditto. The Friendly City sounds great!! Big Friendly sounds too corny...like we are trying too hard to imitate the big apple or big easy

I'm like most everyone else - not sure. My concern would be setting up the city for a big fall with every single visitor. If that "Big Friendly" is promoted heavily, it takes just one cold and lifeless desk clerk at the hotel to ruin the whole thing for a visitor who came on the "Big Friendly" promotional tag. You can hear it now, "Yeah...real friendly! Huh!" I remember reading somewhere that when San Diego was going to replace the "America's Greatest City" slogan that they considered using "City of Sunshine" or some such thing and realized that all it took was one rainy day, on the wrong day, for a visitor to have the whole thing made a mockery. After all, they do have their "May Gray and June Gloom." It's kinda the same thing. The bar would be raised so high that maybe the friendliest city, not being perfect, could pull it off. I don't know though, it's a tough one.

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When the Hornets moved in for a couple of years, I came up with "the Big Breezy," which did not catch on. Not that I'm surprised.

Not my town but I'd prefer something a bit more offbeat if it were. After all, OKC just kinda has that reputation, and I mean that in a good way.

Let's face it, it does scream out offbeat to name the airpark after folks who died in a crash. I kinda admire that about the place. 8^)

Well, maybe we could settle for "Fat and Friendly"

:

Something similar to the Big Friendly is Minnesota Nice. I have family that lives in Minnesota and the Minnesota Nice slogan is everywhere.

Minnesota nice - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I don't know what to think about it. I like Gary England's coined term the "big town". That says it all.

I have been to Minneapolis and have relatives in St. Paul, but I have never heard of that. Minnesotans are nice. But a slogan?

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I like "Big Town" too, chuckdiesel. I like "Big Friendly" too.

Definitely not Big Town. That will just reconfirm the hickish outsider perception.

I can't believe that you haven't seen or heard of "Minnesota Nice" slogan. They have been using that slogan for many years. At the airport there are all the suvenior shops with "Minnesota Nice" and at any shopping mall you will see all of the same things.

I think that it is one of the things where once you know about it is when you start to see slogan everywhere.

Having said that I don't know how true of a slogan it is, I am not saying that Minnesotans are not NIce, but it is not something that sticks out to you.

This is why I don't like the name "Big Friendly", with a name like that then people start to be more critical if you are not "Friendly".

Why can't we just be Oklahoma City. I like the name Oklahoma City. I really do. It works. We will earn our reputation in years to come.

Besides...self-styled nicknames are juvenile...especially patented ones.