'Virginia is for Lovers' tourism slogan hits middle age

It's one-seventh the age of the Governor's Palace in Colonial Williamsburg and about 200 years younger than Monticello.

Yet the slogan aimed at bringing visitors to those and other Virginia tourist sites is marking its own venerable birthday.

"Virginia is for Lovers " turns 40 this year.

Officials credit the catchphrase - short, memorable, open-ended, a touch provocative - with sharply stimulating Virginia's tourism industry. In 1969, visitors spent $809 million in Virginia. In 2007, the figure was $18.7 billion. Alisa Bailey, president of the Virginia Tourism Corp., predicted the total for 2008 would be flat because of the recession.

"Particularly in these challenging economic times, you have to have something that people recognize to cut through all that clutter," Bailey said.

Of course, not everyone loves the lovers line.

"When I'm going to Virginia with my grandkids, I'm not going to say it's for lovers," said Rhonda White, 52, of Jacksonville, Fla., who was visiting her son in Virginia Beach last week. "That doesn't mean anything for them."

Bob Garfield, a columnist for Advertising Age, said in an e-mail: "I have no idea where it came from... Have you ever been to Norfolk, Harrisonburg or Manassas? They're about as romantic as a kidney stone."

But even Garfield offered grudging approval. "Still, it's unique," he wrote, "and Virginia got there first - which is what advertising people call 'pre-emption.' I always thought it was the stupidest slogan ever conceived, but its very longevity proves me wrong."

That durability has made an impact, even outside Virginia.

In 2006, the Virginia Tourism Corp. surveyed about 1,500 people in large cities such as New York, Baltimore and Washington. Thirty-five percent identified the Virginia slogan without help - far more recognition than for any other state tested - spokeswoman Tamra Talmadge-Anderson said. In contrast, "I Love New York" was known by 12 percent, she said.

The tourism department also asks people who had requested information about Virginia whether they visited or extended their stay. The response, known as the conversion rate, was 40 percent, Bailey said. That, she said, also is attributable to "the consistency of 'Virginia is for Lovers.' "

A team from the Richmond advertising agency Martin & Woltz came up with the slogan.

The group played with a series of lines such as "Virginia is for history lovers" and "Virginia is for beach lovers," said David Martin, then president of the agency. But the ad people realized they needed just one slogan, and so "Virginia is for lovers" was born.

"We decided that we could make a very strong case for the fact that the real need of the tourism business was to broaden their market and get more young couples interested in traveling here," he said.

Plus, "it was definitely in sync with the times," said Martin, now senior consultant for Martin Branding Worldwide. "There was the slogan 'Make love, not war,' and Erich Segal's 'Love Story.' Love was in the air."

The first print ads, in magazines such as Modern Bride, featured a man and woman in Colonial garb representing the first couple to be married in the Colonies. The headline: "In 1608, Anne Burras and John Laydon started something. The Virginia Honeymoon."

Linwood Holton, who became governor in 1970, was a bit skeptical at first.

"That is a slogan that is subject to more than one interpretation," Holton recalled last week, "and I was concerned about whether people would be offended by it. My initial reaction was not to do much of anything about it."

When he returned to the Executive Mansion one day to find his children singing along with the ditty then associated with "Virginia is for Lovers," he figured: If it was OK for them, it would be OK for adults. Holton started wearing a button with the slogan, even on national TV news shows and at governors' conferences.

Others who later sported the button, Martin said, included actress Elizabeth Taylor, then married to U.S. Sen. candidate John Warner. "It became the greatest demonstration of free ink that ever occurred," Holton said.

The motto almost didn't make it through the '80s, however. An overeager state official, antsy for change, switched it to "Virginia: Exciting times every time." Not long after, the lovers slogan was reinstated.

What do advertising professionals make of it?

Bill Bergman, president and chief executive officer of the Bergman Group in Richmond, said, "I've never understood it in any way, shape or form." But he lauded Virginia for sticking with it: "I think it's a great case study in terms of being consistent over time, and when you're consistent over time, your messaging is successful."

Rick Boyko, a former New York ad executive, is director of Virginia Commonwealth University's Brandcenter, a graduate program in advertising. He said the slogan does not establish a unique link to Virginia.

"I think the best end-lines are ones that can be owned totally," he said, citing "What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas." "What is it about being a lover in Virginia that separates it from Ohio or Pennsylvania or any other state?"

Tourists and locals strolling the Oceanfront in Virginia Beach offered similarly mixed reactions last week. "I think it's a great slogan; Virginia is a beautiful state," said Marvin Greene, 46, visiting from Temple Hill, Md.

But Bill Longanecker, 57, a pastor from New Paris, Ohio, said, "It's open to all kinds of immoral things. I wasn't impressed with it when I saw it."

The slogan, Bailey said, is supposed to have "more of a connotation of romance as opposed to sexuality. If you're trying to rekindle your relationship or you're going on your honeymoon, I don't think you could argue that there aren't absolutely fabulous places to go in Virginia."

The tourism office obtained a trademark for "Virginia is for Lovers" and its red heart in 2004, allowing it to market merchandise including T-shirts, caps and aprons. Revenue is $250,000 a year.

But that doesn't prohibit use of the words by other sources. After Virginians voted in 2006 for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages, critics tweaked the slogan, asking, for instance, "Is Virginia really for lovers?"

Jordin Sparks, the 2007 winner of the "American Idol" TV competition, recorded a song titled "Virginia is for Lovers." The tune, about a romantic breakup, was not part of the tourism campaign. Sparks sings about being "on a roller coaster ride" but doesn't say whether it's at Busch Gardens.

Even a successful slogan can't beat back budget cuts.

Annual state funding for the tourism office has been trimmed in the past two years by $1.6 million, leaving it at $15 million - the lowest level in a dozen years, Bailey said.

That has forced the department to cut five office positions, stop staffing its 12 welcome centers Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and drop out-of-state broadcast advertising, Bailey said.

"My fear is that we will be drowned out in the marketplace," she said.

Yet she sees new tourism opportunities with the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama this month and the changing of the guard in Washington.

Meanwhile, the four-word phrase has had to share space for the past year and half.

In the summer of 2007, Virginia launched a "Live Passionately" campaign, appending the phrase to the "Virginia is for Lovers" slogan.

" 'Live Passionately' is just a way to give it new meaning," Bailey said. "We are marketing to the person who has a love of life and passion for travel."

The campaign has an online "passionality quiz" and dozens of "portraits of passion," among them Virginia Beach surfer Eric Coulson and Cape Charles kayaker Dave Burden.

Martin, who was not involved in "Live Passionately," said it fits well with the original idea.

Others have their doubts.

"It doesn't do anything for me," said Linda Ferguson, a marketing and communications professor at Virginia Wesleyan College. "That's where so many agencies go wrong. They always try to go a step past the simplicity when they feel something is getting old instead of respecting its heritage."

Bailey said she didn't know how long the "Live Passionately" tagline would be used, but she has no thought of abandoning "Virginia is for Lovers."

"You can have all the strategy in the world," Martin said, "and it's not going to happen unless you have some magical words. These are magical words."

News researcher Maureen Watts contributed to this report.

Philip Walzer, (757) 222-3864, phil.walzer@pilotonline.com