At least Benson didn't decide to call them the Tomcats

I might have gone for this idea, though.

The primarily teal color scheme of the past has been replaced by dark blue, gold and red.

While the team said the gold represents the team’s ties with the Saints, Tom O’Grady, president of Game Plan Creative, a Chicago-based branding and marketing agency, said he was surprised that black wasn’t chosen instead.

“The Saints look so good in all-black,” O’Grady said. “You would have had the look they do in Pittsburgh with the Pirates, Penguins and Steelers. That would have been a real home run.

 I'm sure O'Grady meant to say, "That would have been a real slam dunk," but the point is still a good one. Don't these ad wizzards know anything about how to brand a city?

Oh.. apparently not.

New Orleans Will Need You

You are New Orleans, and you can make a difference. It’s as simple as staying informed and supporting tourism. Spread the word to your neighbors and be welcoming to all our visitors. They bring gifts.

Last year, during Mardi Gras a tourist brought me the gift of pee on my doorstep.  I tried to spread the word to my neighbors. Not sure it helped. 

Update: I noticed the chatter about this "NEW ORLEANS WILL" campaign yesterday but didn't see this FOX 8 report on it until this afternoon.

Local tourism industry leaders' five-year goal is to increase the number of tourists from 9 million to 14 million people a year. But Schulz says the $13.5 million budget isn't enough to market the city and reach that mark.

In comparison, she says it's $4 million less than Denver's marketing budget, $6 million less than Atlanta's, and $25 million less than Orlando's.

She says one way to get more money is by having local hotels sign up to pay a new voluntary assessment fee.

"That will allow the hotels to assess a fee, and for that fee to go into marketing for the city of New Orleans," Schulz said.

They hope local support will encourage the businesses to sign up and to persuade politicians to increase funding in the future.

In other words, the NOCVB has hired a marketing firm to agitate for a revival of last year's "Ho-Zone" special taxing district to provide them with... more marketing money.  In the meantime, they're just dipping into the public money they already have far too much of while the city budget can barely afford "C" and "I" anymore.

I was just talking to someone who says this is "kind of like a NOLA 4 Life campaign but for tourism."    Could be. But I figure as long as they're spending tax money I might as well get some free swag out of it.  I signed up to receive a "WILL POWER Pak Business Kit" from their website. It includes posters and a lapel pin and many more bumper stickers than the number of cars I own.  I hope it arrives before the next major convention.