Slogan

Why are so many Democrats feeling uneasy about the 2008 elections? Every indication is they're going to win big. Republicans in Congress are sure doing their part to keep Democratic hopes high. Hardly a day passes without the GOP leadership blocking some initiative people desperately want - such as ending the hated Iraq war or refusing to allow the government to negotiate lower drug prices. You might think they're tanking this election - that they don't want to win. And you could be right.

Anyone remember the Trash Bash jingle? How about "Baltimore Sparkle?" Or Trash ball? Those rubber garbage cans embellished with "Believe"? A stroll down memory lane, in Baltimore's case, is littered with failed cleanup initiatives. As it is everywhere. Ever since that lone tear rolled down the Indian's cheek in the famous 1970s commercial, national and local campaigns have used guilt, humor, bullying, goofy slogans, goofier mascots and celebrity endorsements in an attempt to get it through America's slovenly skull that littering is bad, garbage cans are good.

My introduction to Parren J. Mitchell came courtesy of a billboard and an old rhythm and blues song. It was September of 1968. I had just entered my senior year at Baltimore City College. Mitchell, the eight-term former congressman who died Monday, was making his first run for the House of Representatives against incumbent Rep. Samuel N. Friedel. Mitchell's campaign slogan, prominent on those billboards, urged his supporters to go out on Election Day and "Do What You Gotta Do," which was the title of a popular rhythm and blues song at the time.

Charles P. Roman, 92, the New York City advertising pioneer who turned bodybuilder Charles Atlas into an icon of American manhood, died Friday. Mr. Roman came up with the Atlas "Dynamic-Tension" trademark, as well as the "I was a 97-pound weakling" slogan. He also devised the long-running comic strip ad in which a brawny bully kicks sand in the face of a skinny man, who then takes the Atlas course and knocks out the bully. The slogan and the ad were based on the life of Mr. Atlas, who was sickly as a child.

Guns don't kill. Bullets do. (This slogan available to whoever finds it useful, no attribution required.)Barak and Arafat talked a good game. Now they have to play it.Forget what O'Malley says. The cops ought to arrest fewer people, until the State's Attorney's Office gets its act together, but the right ones.A. Robert Kaufman for mayor! Never at a loss for words.Pub Date: 7/14/99

WHEN AMERICA Online sued for exclusive use of its e-mail slogan, it was lucky the case was tossed out by a federal judge and not an English teacher. Otherwise, AOL might have been sentenced to hours of banging erasers.As the Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan movie about a cyber-relationship, "You've Got Mail," became a hit, AOL sued to halt AT&T from telling its e-mail users, "You have mail."That's because AOL subscribers who receive electronic mail are alerted by a computer voice that chirps "You've got mail" as the words "You have mail" appear on the screen.

JERUSALEM -- Fascist slogans, a jeering television audience, flying chicken parts, break-ins, death threats. Anarchy in Israel? No, it's the election campaign for the country's next prime minister.This is politics Israeli-style, down and dirty, and months before the May 17 primary. The nastiness cuts across the political spectrum, from the left to the right and everything in between. It breaches the ethnic divide in a society where Jews from Arab countries traditionally have been shut out of the power game long dominated by their countrymen of European origin.

Victor G. Bloede, a former advertising executive who helped introduce the slogan "Good to the last drop" for Maxwell House coffee as well as other enduring advertising campaigns for consumer products, died on Wednesday in Boca Raton, Fla., from complications after surgery. The Baltimore native was 79.In his career, Mr. Bloede rose to chairman and chief executive of Benton & Bowles Advertising, where he was hired as a copywriter in 1950. He was among the first agency heads to refuse to take cigarette accounts after the negative health effects of smoking became known and even resigned several accounts.

WHEN Maryland's new commemorative quarter starts turning up in Americans' change in March, some will be baffled as they try to decipher the slogan accompanying the outline of the State House dome in Annapolis."

Moving onFOUR YEARS ago, then-County Executive John G. Gary was criticized for purchasing a dark blue 1994 Mercury Grand Marquis to use as his official car. One newspaper editorialized that it was wrong for the newly elected county executive to be squandering tax dollars on "a luxury car."A few days after his defeat at the polls, Gary decided to buy a new car. Last week, as he walked to lunch in Annapolis, he proudly showed off his purchase -- a pale lime-green Lincoln Town Car. "That," he said, pointing to his new vehicle, "is a luxury car."

Concerned residents have recently cleared the Back River and its tributaries of more than 10 tons of debris and are urging officials to address continuing problems with trash flowing into the eastern Baltimore County creeks. The same group, striving to clean up the waterway's image, has adopted a new slogan - "Scenic Back River -- Discover the Hidden Treasure." While that caption will soon appear on nearby bridges and roadways, group members say the waterway still needs much polishing before it achieves gem status.

When a Johns Hopkins University undergraduate used a samurai sword to kill an intruder last month, many people supported the student, who told police he acted in self-defense and expressed sadness that a human life had been lost. It was a tragedy, both for the 20-year-old from New Jersey and for the 49-year-old repeat offender who had just been released from jail a few days before he was killed. Fellow students and many city residents rushed to John Pontolillo's defense, which is perfectly understandable and reasonable.

News item: : The Ravens just completed an undefeated preseason and have a long week to prepare for their regular-season opener against the Kansas City Chiefs at M&T Bank Stadium. My take: : To quote Tom Petty, the waiting is the hardest part, especially when your opening act is the Orioles. Related news item: : The Chiefs fired offensive coordinator Chan Gailey just two weeks before the team's Week 1 matchup against the Ravens. My take: : The Chiefs also might be without starting quarterback Matt Cassel, who is sidelined two to four weeks with a knee strain.

Clever phrase Big E gets to drink for free because I liked one of his suggestions for an Orioles slogan the most: "Guthrie and Uehara and pray it rains tamarah." (For more, go to baltimoresun.com/cornersportsbar)

Coventry Health Care's CEO, Wolf, is resigning Coventry Health Care Inc., a provider of medical benefit plans based in Bethesda, said chief executive Dale Wolf will resign. He will be replaced, effective Friday, by Allen Wise, who held the chief executive job before becoming board chairman in 2004, the company said yesterday. Coventry lost 74 percent of its value in New York Stock Exchange trading in the past 12 months, compared with the 49 percent decline in the six-member Standard & Poor's 500 Managed Health Care Index.

Our faithful Chestertown correspondent and longtime friend, Douglas R. Price, who in his younger days was a member of Dwight D. Eisenhower's White House staff, sent me a letter the other day explaining the history of "I Like Ike," which became his former boss' 1952 campaign song. Price said he has been annoyed that the two authors of the "I Like Ike" slogan have been more or less forgotten, and is determined to set the record straight. "The origin of the Irving Berlin 'I Like Ike' song dates back to a Broadway musical titled Call Me Madam, starring Ethel Merman with lyrics by Irving Berlin," wrote Price, who is finishing up his book, They Liked Ike, about Eisenhower's 1952 campaign.

Sports broadcasters who have no business relationship with the Orioles or Ravens say they can be more honest about the team. They can be - in the slogan of ESPN 1300 - "uncensored" (which can only lead us to believe the station was "censored" when it carried the Ravens). On the whole, no station in town logically would turn down the chance to carry one of our two major pro teams. So this whole "freedom" tag could be just a matter of spin. (For more, go to baltimoresun.com/mediumwell)

For nearly three decades, Jack Luskin was "The Cheapest Guy in Town," which in turn became a household slogan for his Baltimore-based appliance and electronics chain. Luskin, now 80 and retired, splits his time between homes in Stevenson and Aventura, Fla. "I have the best of both worlds," he said. "I consider myself unemployed, but I check The Sun's classifieds every day to see what I can do, but no one seems to want me." Jack and his brother, Joe, established Luskin's Inc. in 1948, and turned the post-World War II demand for refrigerators and washing machines into a successful business.

In October, Baltimore will roll out a $2 million advertising campaign aimed at debunking the excuses that people have for littering. "Don't make excuses. Make a difference" will be emblazoned on bumper stickers and billboards as well as promoted in radio and television advertising. "There really are no good excuses for littering or not helping reduce litter," said Ed Callahan, creative director for Planit, the Baltimore-based agency that developed the campaign for the city. The announcement today of the Cleaner Baltimore campaign by Mayor Sheila Dixon comes about five weeks before the city's Sept.

If you had listened to Wall Street's sloganeers and decided to "sell in May and go away," you're probably kicking yourself now. You would have missed out on a rally that lifted the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average and the Russell 2000 small-cap index to record highs last week. In fact, the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index - for the first time in seven years - finally regained what it lost when the technology bubble burst in 2000, setting its own closing record. Of course, there is still plenty of time for the old adage to prove right this summer.