Well, here we go again. Yet another branding campaign for Richmond has been rolled out. This time, it's called RVA Creates and is "an open-source platform that invites public participation."
The delicious irony - or horrific, depending on your point of view - is that the RVA Creates initiative is NEITHER creative NOR open.
What do I mean by this, you may ask? Well, according to the RVA Creates team, the process leading to RVA Creates began "about a year ago." However, the overall brand strategy - telling stories about important past and current risk takers, creators and events in Richmond - looks quite like the "Richmond Matters!" branding strategy rolled out over 2+ years ago. I know, because I was invited to an early meeting on the "Richmond Matters!" strategy in December 2008, and I've followed it ever since. My group had creatives, activists, business people, representatives of the not-for-profit world, and bloggers. You know, the actual grass roots types. The creators of Richmond Matters!, Mark Brady and Shelli Jost Brady of Alchemy, asked us what we thought, they listened to our opinions, and then they used our feedback to mold the idea, which was a truly regional story. In fact, the website URL for Richmond Matters! is www.therichmondregion.com. Presentations on the Richmond Matters! idea were given to loads of people, including many people involved in the subsequent development of RVA Creates. Richmond Matters! has a website. There is a Facebook page, dating from 2009. There are even T-shirts, for goodness sakes!
The "open" claim is even harder to bear. The team behind RVA Creates held small group sessions with specifically invited individuals. I wrote about these meetings in October 2010. According to sources who attended those small group meetings, they were overwhelmingly dominated by 40+ year old white men from the business community. Needless to say, non-whites and women were woefully under- or even un- represented. Shocker. And this is my absolute FAVORITE part - RVA Creates has a private closed discussion group on Facebook, with only the invitees and team members included. And now they call RVA Creates an "open source" campaign? Wow.
More on all of this later, work calls. Also, I'm flabbergasted and frankly, pretty daggone angry. So I should probably simmer down and step away from the keyboard. But I'm glad other people out there have also noticed that the Emperor has no clothes, and are likewise willing to point that out, albeit in a more genteel and well-written way. [Thank you, Harry Kollatz, Jr.!]
I'm still not sure how these folks, Venture Richmond and members of the private sector, have the authority to create a branding campaign for the City of Richmond, period. Shouldn't something as important as our brand be left to the soon-to-be-created Director of Tourism's office? Mayor Jones, did you and your administration ask these folks to take on this task? If the answer is yes, just say so.
And don't get me started on Venture Richmond's incessant and myopic focus on "Downtown" while the rest of the City is just ignored. I'm sure I am going to want to talk more about that too, once I cool down. Hasta la vista, for the time being.
[NOTE: All descriptions of the small-group meetings are based on information from attendees. I was not present at any of these meetings. Is anyone surprised?]
Thanks, Donna! I'm very glad to know other people feel the same way. We ALL want what's best for Richmond, but dressing up the same old top down process in an orchestrated pseudo-grass roots cloak, well, that is too much for me. Put lipstick on a pig and it ain't the prom queen. It's still a pig. I'm still waiting to hear where the authority - not to mention the MONEY - for this campaign came from. Maybe someone who gets paid to check out this sort of stuff will start digging....
Posted by: Melissa Savenko | February 11, 2011 at 02:56 PM
Thank you Melissa!! Have been trying to figure out how to say this and where to. Beautifully done, girl!!
Posted by: Donna | February 11, 2011 at 01:58 PM