Woody Cavenaugh

I saw an article on Fark.com recently about Fayetteville NC and all of Cumberland County working together to rebrand their area and try to finally live down "Fayettenam " by taking an almost Disney like approach to a brand identity. If Disney can be the happiest place on earth, why couldn't Cumberland county be the most patriotic place on earth.

The submitter of this story to fark I am not sure really understood the article very well as they labeled it "Asinine" and submitted it with this title. "To show pride in country that prides itself on freedom, town wants to force restaraunts to serve apple pie. Freedom last seen choking itself to death" Amusing title, but not realy related to the article.

The Fayetteville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau have been spit balling some ideas that could help to turn the tide of popular opinion and all of the ideas were good ones. Giving away free flags on the street, having all the restaurants serve apple pie, paint the town red, white and blue, all these ideas and more are on the table. Since it was brain storming, obviously not all of them will ever see the light of day but it is clear that they are thinking well with open minds and creative spirits. Sooner or later every area is trying to brand or rebrand themselves the only difference is that Fayetteville's ideas are bolder, broader, and potentially more likely to work.

I believe it will work and one of the reasons is size and population of the area. Greensboro could never do this. It is too big, too diverse, and too combative. (Combative is not exactly the right word, but I couldn't think of one better off of the top of my head.) Fayetteville will make this very bold plan happen because there isn't enough population to whip up a strong resistance to it. And who can argue against patriotism? (Pure genius!) Greensboro has a heck of a time just doing small things. The baseball statium is a prime example. Some wanted it for good reason, some didn't want it for equally good reason. The side with the most money won the battle. I have no opinion of baseball except it is a ball sport. However I do have an opinion of the downtown revitalization effort and I applaud it. It won't be nearly as easy to be successful with this effort because it isn't a bold choice. It will be harder for the casual observor to measure tangable success. Someone from Fayetville won't be able to drive downtown and even say what is going on good, but if any of us were to drive through Fayetville after their effort is complete we are all going to agree that they had a theme and they went with it. Who knows, we might even come away with a free flag.