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Virginia Is for Lovers slogan caught fire in 1969, and it's still got life in it today. Date published: 2/23/2009
The creative team at Richmond's Martin & Woltz ad agency didn't have the Virginia tourism campaign yet, but they really wanted it.
They decided to frame a slogan around the idea that Virginia is the best of the United States in miniature, with mountains, beaches, history, cities and countryside. But their first attempts didn't sound quite right. "Virginia is for history lovers," "Virginia is for mountain lovers," "Virginia is for beach lovers"--too wordy. Not practical. Kind of boring. Then someone said, "Virginia is for lovers." The moment, David N. Martin recalls, was breathtaking. It was 1969, and while the rest of the country was bristling with social and cultural change, Virginia clung to its staid Old Dominion image. But the word "lovers"--implying a little bit of sex, with or without marriage--had a bit of the ooh-la-la. "We knew that at that time the word 'lover' had electricity about it," Martin recalled in a recent phone interview. "It had the connotation of naughtiness." And Virginia needed some of that. People middle-age and older already visited Virginia. This campaign had to attract first-time visitors, people in their 20s and younger--the baby boomers. Martin doesn't remember which of the four people in the penthouse office overlooking downtown Richmond said the phrase first. He does remember, though, that like him, none of the others in the room--his partner George Woltz, Barbara Ford and Robin McLaughlin--was much older than 30. Martin presented the idea in the echoing chambers of the State Capitol, surrounded by stuffy legislators and conservative businessmen. "I had the sense that they kind of squirmed a little," he recalled by phone last week from his winter residence in coastal Mexico. But "Virginia Is for Lovers" won out over four other presentations, and the young Martin & Woltz agency got the campaign. The startle factor worked: "Virginia Is for Lovers" was a hit with state residents, out-of-state tourists and, Martin recalled, journalists. "Even newspaper columnists, who are born cynical, liked the idea," he said. The in-state ad budget was small, but a public service TV commercial was filmed showing an attractive young woman named Debbie Shelton--later Miss Virginia USA and Miss USA--holding hands on the beach with a good-looking guy. She wore a one-of-a-kind T-shirt with the slogan and the curvy red heart on the front.
Date published: 2/23/2009
Ever since I have resided in this Commonwealth, I have noted with distain the "Virginia is for Lovers" slogan since it is well believed that lovers throw out common sense. Take ex Virginia Governor's campaign pledge not to raise taxes and yet he campaigned and signed the largest tax hike ever. That year, the Commonwealth has a tax surplus even and Virginian loved him for it. Virgina has a lot of beauty but it also has a lot of negatives too. I can't wait to leave and find a place that does not tax, tax...
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