COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- "Live It Up!" That's the tagline of Colorado Springs' latest branding attempt, but it's not getting rave reviews.
The brand was revealed Tuesday but already people are asking the city to reconsider.
"It's something I feel like is not representative of Colorado Springs," Tucker Wannamaker said.
Since it's unveiling both the tag line and the design have been bashed on online forums.
"I immediately put up a poll, just a very general poll, asking for feedback like 'what do people think about this?' and it was very quickly getting to where people just didn't like it," Wannamaker said.
Wannamaker said he and his friend wanted to channel those comments and open up a conversation with the city, so they created a Facebook page.
"We don't want to attack anybody but we also do want something to change, so it's a very interesting balance and a fine line because of that, but we definitely want to open the conversation and have a dialogue about this and see what we can do about this, because in our opinion there's a little bit of an issue here," Wannamaker said.
Wannamaker's page "Rebrand the Springs" has more than 400 "likes."
"A lot of times when cities roll out a brand there's feedback on both sides, and that's what we've experienced," Amy Long, Vice President of Marketing & Membership for the Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB), said.
Long said the task force wanted to come up with a brand for Colorado Springs because for too long it's been branded by the outside world.
"We were ultra conservative, it was too religious, it was all kinds of things. It was turning out the lights, we had a lot of negativity coming in," Long said.
Long said the task force is open to community feedback but defended the city's new tag line.
"Yeah if you're in Las Vegas and you say "Live It Up" you've got one message going, and if you live in a beautiful place that's full of life and vitality and you're at a high elevation, "Live It Up" takes on a completely different meaning, and a very positive meaning, and that's where we were going with that," Long said.
The project cost more than $100,000 which has outraged some taxpayers, but Long said the money wasn't taken from other city services.
"None of my budget goes to support the police or the fire, and the city did not give us any additional funds to do this, so I guarantee that no lights stayed out because of this project. Parks were still watered, no police activities or personnel went unfunded because of this," Long said.
Long added the CVB is funded by a lodging tax and car rental tax people pay when they come to visit. She said they use those taxes to advertise the city, and this is what they chose to spend that money on this year.
"It was a choice we made out of our advertising budget, and yes hard choices have to be made in business, and maybe I won't place an ad in Texas this year, but nothing happened in terms of city services," Long said.
The task force has also been criticized for not hiring a local business to create the brand, but Long said that's a misconception.
She said the owners do live in town but their administrative assistant lives in Castle Rock.
"We looked local to hire a branding company. We did not send the RFP to any company in Denver, in New York, Chicago, L.A., it was only the Colorado Springs and Pike's Peak Region," Long said.
Long said it's too early to talk about changes, but they aren't out of the question.
"The next step is the listening and the conversations, and not just listening to say 'hey we listened' and off you go, we truly want to engage in professional and respectful conversation, and hear all sides," Long said.
Wannamaker said that's all they are asking for.
"A great logo tells a great story," Wannamaker said. "We have a great story of Colorado Springs, and we want to be able to tell that story in a much more effective way."
Click here for more responses from the CVB to FAQ's about the new brand.
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