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Scouting BSA, the May 2nd Scout Me In Announcement


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"Scout Me In"?.... maybe the videos will sound better. I am a little underwhelmed. In Tampa we have had a number of these awkwardly worded noun/verb confusion slogans: (for Tampa visitors) "Tampa with me" and the hapless NFL Tampa Buccaneers "Siege the Day". Maybe we need @Cambridgeskip to teach us Continentals how to form proper simple sentences. I hear they got smart parents in his Troop.

A really good slogan is hard to come by, (I know we got a few marketing types on here who probably know more.) My dad worked for National Airlines in the day and they had one of the most successful (and sexist now LOL) campaigns with the "Fly me" campaign ("I'm Cindy...Fly Me"). It was a huge win for a small airline...And of course the clean up campaign "Don't Mess with Texas" and "I (heart) NY". BSA consistently underwhelms. ("Be.Prepared.For Life")

I think "Scouts BSA" is either transitional to 'Scouts USA' or National really believes those 3 magic letters are what people are nostalgic about. While I am a traditionalist it seems awkward and a clean break would have been better. I know they have to be careful about GSUSA and want to hang on to BSA for trademark purposes.

I think the muddledness of the language comes from either a muddledness of thought OR the fact that existing BSA members are divided on the issue and they have to keep straddling the fence.

 

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As it happens looking at this I think the "Scout me in" is the only part of this that I would be very wary of.

Marketing is a two edged sword at the best of time, marketing to teenagers even more so.

As soon as you introduce a slogan for something that is most definitely not "cool" it can be used as a stick by the bullies to metaphorically beat kids that are scouts with.

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“Surbaugh predicted that both boys and girls in Scouts BSA would refer to themselves simply as scouts, rather than adding “boy” or “girl” as a modifier.” - From USA Today 

Long term I tend to agree and my guess is that “BSA” was added for Trademark vs GSUSA.  If not then I’m not sure why one wouldn’t have simply used Scouts.

Scout Me In is fine ... but I’m really curious about the advertising and what they emphasize in the program going forward.

 
 
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I saw this posted on a friends timeline this morning on FB.  I am still surprised at how many people are still commenting about how they will pull their funds and kids out of scouting.  My only question to them is When?  I wish those folks would just hurry up and leave so we can get organized and move forward.  In a story on ABC GSA was quoted as saying that they would now add badges and program changes to help in the retention of girls in their program.  Should have done that sooner huh?

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