New slogan under fire for being inclusionary, yet discriminatory
By Phil Riske | Senior Reporter/Writer
I am from Wyoming. That’s where tough old cowpokes historically managed and mastered the land and its herds of animal life. They still do, although much rangeland has gone to energy exploration.
Some of my distant relatives were cowboys, and I take pride in that.
But I am not a cowboy,
I am, however, a graduate of the University of Wyoming, but not proud of a planned stupid campaign that attempts to make me and everyone else associated with the school a “cowboy.”
A $500K campaign has come up with a branding campaign that claims “The world needs more cowboys.”
Some are raising objections, calling the slogan sexist, racist and counterproductive to the university’s recruiting goals.
University mouthpiece Chad Baldwin defends the slogan, saying one of the campaign’s central goals was redefining the word “cowboy” to represent all faculty, staff, students and others associated with the university.
So, I guess, English professors, female faculty and scientists studying butterflies are cowboys.
The athletic teams are “Cowboys,” but they are students, who don’t know how to tame a wild horse.
The University of Wyoming Committee on Women and People of Color wrote a letter to Baldwin and University of Wyoming President Laurie Nichols, asking them to “shelve that slogan and find another one that represents the diversity of people and cultures that we have, and want to have, as UW.”
While inclusionary, making everyone a “cowboy” has to be a laugher for real cowboys.
This is a ridiculous exercise to promote my alma mater and a case where to the loser goes the Spoils. Boulder, Colorado-based marketing firm Victors & Spoils roped in $500,000 to develop the campaign.
