Final Word from Monday, July 2, 2012
Let's face it, there's not much you can do with the word
"republic" from a marketing standpoint. It's not a word that lends
itself to clever puns for advertising. If you really stretch it, you
might promote binge drinking with "Czech RePUBlic," but the
country has already put that phase of its existence behind it. If
you go for a contrived slogan like "Czech Republike," as
CzechTourism did, you simply make a fool of yourself and raise
questions about who got the payoff. Most countries promote
themselves with a bright logo and their name or simple slogan,
such as "Visit Sweden." CzechTourism already had a nice flag-
based logo. If it felt it also needed to use a pun, it should have
concentrated on "Czech." You know, something like "Czech out
Prague." Or even better: "Travel Czechlist: ▢ Prague, ▢ Český
Krumlov, ▢ Karlovy Vary, ▢ Kutná Hora, ▢ Karlštejn." The
advantage to this is that the list is endless.[Czech Republic tourism pubs episodic]
Glossary of difficult words
pun - a joke exploiting the possible meanings of a word;
to stretch something - to adapt or extend the scope of something in a way that exceeds a reasonable or acceptable limit;
binge drinking - heavy episodic drinking;
contrived - giving a sense of artificiality;
payoff - bribe.