Re-Erect Hung Far Low!

When I heard that Chinatown's famous neon Hung Far Low restaurant sign had been removed for safety reasons, I was dismayed. It seemed that our city was losing yet another piece of its unique identity.

Gladly, there was a flurry of interest. A small but passionate group of activist citizens, including yours truly, decided not take this development sitting down. The result? A groundswell of support has emerged to repair the sign and return it to its place. I lent my wordcraft to the cause, drafted the slogan you see above and sent it off to a few friends. Seems they liked it. It caught on.

Get yourself this Pander Brothers t-shirt.

A fundraising campaign has now materialized, rallying around the cry "Re-Erect Hung Far Low"! You can visit a website to make donations to the cause or, for a better ROI, purchase T-shirts that feature my words and a design created by Pander Brothers studios. How cool is that?

The fact is, our unique identity as a city matters. Our sense of place, of history, even of self are closely tied to landmarks signs like Hung Far Low and Made in Oregon. It's part of what makes us, us. Unfortunately, like most U.S. cities, Portland seems to be under constant threat of a mega-corporation ooze that encroaches upon our cultural heritage. In this case, time itself had brought a threat to bear.

For that reason, I encourage you to drop by the site and pick up a shirt. I'm also pitching in to help throw a block party to raise funds for the sign. Watch this space for details -- or if you want to help, drop me a note. In the meantime, let's keep Portland weird.

Rosey Awards vs. Nosey Awards: Why I'm Feeling the Love

The Roseys and the Noseys take their gloves off in the Twittersphere.

The 2009 Rosey Awards campaign has provoked more controversy and debate than perhaps any previous Roseys campaign. As mentioned in my post last week, having contributed copywriting to this Ant Hill Marketing production and helped continue the debate in the social media sphere, I am very proud of these results. Let me explain.

The way I see it, controversy as a mode of engagement is neither “bad” nor “good.” It just is. It’s people being people. I’m more interested in its value to the participants and in the outcomes to which it leads. By those measures, the Roseys get an A+ for provoking passionate, intelligent debate. This conflict has brought us together—an all-the-more-ironic outcome for a community that is often described as being conflict-averse.

Still, while I love this campaign, come November and the celebration of the Rosey Awards gala, this whole sturm will float down the drang. Whether you like the 2009 Roseys campaign or hate it, “either way,” as Billy Joel once sang, “it’s okay, you wake up with yourself.”

But this year there will be one vital difference.

This year’s Roseys have done more than merely piss a few people off. They have moved some people to action. Specifically, two employees of Nemo Design, Dave Ewald (aka @motorcoatdave) and Justin Spohn (aka @adognamedpants). They launched an alternative to the Roseys, dubbing it the Nosey Awards.

Although I have spoken well of the Noseys, mostly on Twitter as @joelgunz, Justin and others have somehow gotten it into their heads that I am frustrated by or otherwise resentful of its presence. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The fact is, since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, my ego should spiking through the roof. I am honored, guys, thanks. (BTW, Dave and I are getting together for happy hour on Monday to chat more about the project.)

Why do I like the Noseys so much? Because, one month ago, Portland had (to my knowledge) only one creative community awards show. Now it has two. And they naturally complement each other. We have a juried competition, the Roseys, and a people’s choice competition, the Noseys. Sweet! Such diversity can only be good for the creative community. Kudos to Dave and Justin and to their most vocal advocate, yet another Nemo employee, Dave Allen, aka @pampelmoose. Though Allen claims to have no formal connection to the Noseys, it's hard to imagine where the Noseys would be without his indefatigable support. Those three Nemo employees have done a great job of quickly getting the Noseys off the ground.

This isn’t to say, however, that their project isn’t without flaws. (Come on, guys, you knew this was coming.)

As a parody of a snarky, smack-talky campaign, the Noseys also use the language of snark in its own self-promotion. For instance, on twitter, @NoseyAwards has embraced such snarky sentiments as “Our community is better than your campaign.” Justin has tweeted: “The Noseys aren't about hating on anyone but the haters.” A basic rule of life is that in hating the haters, you become one of them. Judging by the piss and vinegar in his various blog comments, he is clearly already there.

Therein lies the rub. You cannot try to seize the moral high ground by rising above snark, yet continue communicate using snark. It’s intellectually and philosophically dishonest. If the Noseys really do want to stand for something other than the snark of the Roseys, I would suggest that they take a completely different approach, perhaps one involving buttercups and unicorns. Then again, I hope they don’t actually take this advice, because I’m enjoying the parody and the smack talk.

Perhaps the funniest response to the whole spat is this tweet via @kirstenblair: “If the #noseys are the anti #roseys then I'm making #hellnoseys - Screw contests.” Hells to the yeah!

Until then,
Long live the Roseys!
Long live the Noseys!