Landmark sign isn’t ready for close-ups
Shopworn tourist magnet will get a refresh, but there’s still no budget for upkeep
The Toronto sign in Nathan Phillips Square, a perpetually photographedand-shared marketing megastar, looks like it needs a stint in rehab.
The sign’s 16-month-old vinyl sheath has been worn away unevenly on the base of the three Os by hundreds of thousands of posing feet — and other body parts — exposing patches of black rubbery padding underneath.
The wrap is noticeably scuffed in other spots, as is the polycarbonate frame.
It’s hard to imagine the city of Toronto letting another landmark look so shabby for months. But councillors have been cooler to the sign’s charms than tourists or marketing experts, refusing to budget money for its upkeep.
“There is wear and tear over the winter,” Wynna Brown, media relations manager for the city, said in an email, adding that money was found within economic development’s budget for the first new wrap since late 2015. But a cold snap foiled plans to install it before New Year’s and staff are now waiting until May, and a warm, dry spell, so the vinyl can adhere properly. The 2015 Pan Am Games spirit booster, kept in the square by popular demand, has no official permanent status, no guidelines for which events merit notice by its multihued lights, and no ongoing maintenance funding.
Last June, councillors sent back to staff for review their request for $150,000 to fix and improve the 3D sign, and nixed the idea of spending up to $200,000 on a mobile T.O. sign that would have travelled to city events.
Mike Williams, economic development manager, told councillors the sign developed by two of his staff was “the most successful marketing media branding project that I’ve ever been involved with,” at the time, with more than 120 million social-media shares.
But, he warned, without upkeep it would “start to look lousy.”
One Etobicoke councillor, Stephen Holyday, proposed at the time that Toronto should try to sell its namesake sign, warning “the light bulbs are going to burn out, or it’s going to fall, or somebody’s going to cut their finger on it.”
Yet, on a sunny Sunday afternoon, Torontonians and tourists alike were patiently waiting their turn to pose beside or climb onto the 3-metre letters.
“Before I came here I knew I needed to see the Toronto sign the first day,” said Megan McCullagh, a consultant who moved here from her native Ireland in January. “I just knew of it and saw it online.”
Her friend Orla Heneghan, visiting from Ireland for the weekend, added: “It’s one of the top things I wanted to see here in the short time I have.”
“It’s amazing. It looks cool, you know? The bomb,” said Jonathan Barona, a Toronto warehouse worker. “It’s looking a bit old, it could be refreshed. This is a tourist place — they should invest in the face of Toronto.”
Professor David Soberman, national chair in strategic marketing at U of T’s Rotman School of Management, said this is not the time to let a successful Toronto symbol slip.
“We have recently made a strong effort to rebrand Toronto and with our low dollar and political climate in the U.S.A., there is probably no better time to make a strong pitch to Americans who are our major source of tourists,” he said in an email.
The government, he added, “is often a lot more constrained in terms of who they can hire and how much maintenance costs compared to a private business.”