October 7, 2024
The One and Only
By: Lydia Noble
If it works for Palm Beach, why not Pocatello! Their 2021 tagline: THE ORIGINAL, THE ONE, THE ONLY, THE PALM BEACHES works for them. Now, for the bargain price of $94,000, Pocatello gets to borrow/tweak that Palm Beach tagline for our very own! It’s not really plagiarism—it’s punctuated differently! And, Pocatello didn’t claim to be “the original” either! Remember, the goal (in part) was to rebrand Pocatello by choosing a tagline that “inspires pride in place for the local community and builds a unique identity that differentiates Pocatello from neighboring Cities.” No worries, Palm Beach is far away and it’s a County, not a City.
Oh, and Noblesville, Indiana—they’re far away, too. Let’s just ignore they filed an April 2024 trademark application for: NOBLESVILLE INDIANA THE ONE AND ONLY SINCE 1823 to market themselves on t-shirts and other city-branded apparel.
Surely, everyone realizes the new City of Pocatello tagline, “THE ONE AND ONLY,” is totally exclusive and represents our unique Pocatello identity. It simply couldn’t apply to any other neighboring cities like Salt Lake City, Idaho Falls or Coeur D’Alene as our new tagline would never fit those neighboring cities. It’s absolutely Pocatello-specific, unique and inspired. Right?
I know, I know. The naysayers will complain about the tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of dollars it will cost to have EVERYTHING redone over the next few years—new letterhead, business cards, uniform/vehicle markings, City signs, advertising, promotional materials, etc. But, remember, it’s an investment in City government for their “company” because the City told us this is THEIR company logo/tagline. That’s why they left all final decisions to Council and entirely excluded the rest of the community from providing feedback.
Whew, what a relief! The rest of us in the Pocatello Community can distance ourselves from any association with such an unoriginal, recycled, secondhand tagline. Thankfully, we are spared the embarrassment. THAT, falls squarely on the shoulders of our elected city leaders—the ones responsible for these decisions and for investing so much of our taxpayer dollars on THEIR company rebranding.
