Life in the Laney Lane
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
But Laney wasn’t finished with tourism. With what appeared to be Mayor Richard Daley’s blessing, she moved her operation, staff included, to the city’s newly formed office of tourism, where she was to report to Osterman in the special events department. This arrangement made sense, said an administration source, because city officials believed it would help eliminate considerable duplication of effort in regard to tourism and special events.
The new tourism director quickly set about developing a slogan around which to create a Chicago tourism campaign. She wound up introducing “Chicago’s Got It!” as the city’s new motto. Just how Laney came up with the slogan remains a point of contention between her and other tourism executives. Late last week, Laney maintained the slogan was created after she came to work for the city, in brainstorming sessions involving herself and public relations advisers from the Burson-Marsteller agency. But in fact Burson-Marsteller first submitted the slogan to Laney’s previous employer, the Convention and Tourism Bureau, in a document dated February 15, 1990, a month and a half before Laney moved. According to Petkus, bureau executives weren’t thrilled with “Chicago’s Got It!” and decided against using it at the time.
Late last week Laney said her rapport with Osterman was fine. Spokesman Levin said the city’s special events director would have no comment on the status of her relations with Laney.
Cleveland’s Play to Land at Northlight; Local Boy Makes Goodman
