Red faces as slogan is hijacked for a less Inspiring view of city

Published on Monday 30 May 2005 12:13

THE agency behind Edinburgh's new advertising slogan "Inspiring Capital" has been left red-faced after an aggrieved resident snapped up the internet site with the same name.

Instead of reading about the city's attractions, anyone logging on to www.inspiringcapital.com finds a tirade of abuse levelled at senior Edinburgh councillors.

The offending website carries the catchphrase "Looking for Inspiration? Not here dude".

The city council unveiled the new slogan last week after spending 800,000 on a 15 month-long project to create a new "brand" for the Capital. Advertising companies today labelled the failure to secure the website for the city an "unbelievable" gaffe.

London-based Interbrand were appointed last year to draw up a campaign to promote the city to the world. The firm was today forced to defend the decision not to buy the domain name - which could cost just 1.99 a year.

Council leader Donald Anderson admitted it was a "minor setback", but said he was "bitterly disappointed" with the content of the site.

The man responsible for anti-establishment website EdinburghSucks.com bought the address in April - a month before the new "brand" slogan was unveiled. He is believed to be an Edinburgh-based businessman who is highly critical of how the city is run.

The website owner, who identifies himself only as The Basa - said he was "astonished" to see his slogan unveiled as the new brand for Edinburgh.

He said: "Marketing is a difficult business, but there are some basic rules - before you decide on the catchphrase for global consumption, make sure you have the catchphrase domain. And when you spend 800,000 of taxpayers' money and your arch-rival has the relevant domain names, someone should be getting fired for this."

His website guides browsers to damning reports into the city's care homes and stories about the failed road tolls referendum.

Tory councillor Alastair Paisley, the party's Edinburgh spokesman for economic development, said: "The great image of our city has been destroyed and web users will find out what Edinburgh council is really about. This is an appalling oversight by the administration."

A similar problem occurred in 2002, when the council changed the name of the company responsible for trams from Entico to Tie, because the name was already registered by another company.

Lib Dem councillor Fred Mackintosh, who first spotted that mix-up three years ago, said the council hasn't learnt from past mistakes.

"This is just daft," he said. "I'm amazed they didn't check this out first. With all that money they could easily have bought any domain name they wanted."

Internet expert James Birchmore, managing director of Frozenweb.co.uk, added: "Buying a domain name is one of the first things anyone should do when setting up a new venture."

Cllr Anderson said: "The branding, which is a huge corporate project, is about delivering jobs for Edinburgh and promoting the city. The person behindthe website is somebody with a serious gripe with the Capital and I'm bitterly disappointed that he has taken the time to undermine and diminish that hard work."

Rita Clifton from Interbrand added: "Inspiring Capital is just a slogan. Sometimes they'll be registered, sometimes they won't."

Ms Clifton said it would be for the city council to decide if they want to pursue legal action against the website's owner.