Newspaper Takes Up the Effort to Promote St. Louis to St. Louisans
St. Louis has advertised to the world that it is a good city to live in, work in and play in. The Chamber of Commerce, Advertising Club, Convention Bureau and other business and civic organizations are exerting every effort to sell St. Louis to the universe. A local newspaper has conceived the idea of assisting the bodies that are elevating the city to a higher plane, by intensifying the civic interest of the local population.
The plan which is being executed by the St. Louis Star is intended to create not a passive, but an aggressive spirit of loyalty in St. Louisans. The most potent known power – advertising – is being used on a large scale to bring about the desired results. The slogan that The Star has adopted is “punchy” and brief – “If it helps St. Louis, BOOST it. If it doesn’t – FIGHT.”
Between forty and fifty bulletin boards and wall signs, located in well-traveled parts of the city, carry this message; it appears daily in the columns of The Star; banners posted on this newspaper’s fleet of trucks flaunt it before the eyes of thousands of people daily. Cards containing a colored reproduction of the design will be mailed to more than a thousand business firms, with the request that they be displayed where employees may easily see them.
If “charity begins at home,” then certainly the appreciation of St. Louis must originate in the same place. It is not to be doubted that St. Louisans realize the privilege and prestige of being identified with a city that has demonstrated progressiveness and enterprise as has this city in the past few years. But the fact that St. Louis must constantly be exploited in order to maintain its reputation and strength as a “live wire” cannot be over-emphasized to its people. It should become the individual determination of every man and woman who is proud of his and her home in the city, to broadcast that fact at every opportunity. If that determination can be instilled in at least a large percentage of St. Louis; if, likewise, a fighting spirit will be evidenced when malicious or hastily-uttered “knocks” are heard, then this city has accomplished something which is priceless and which constitutes the very essence unlimited success.
“If it helps St. Louis, BOOST it. If it doesn’t – FIGHT.” These few words strike the keynote of the ideal civic attitude. The St. Louis Star is to be commended for creating the slogan and the plan of giving it such effective publicity.
(Originally published in Greater St. Louis October 1923).