The worst kept secret in town was confirmed today:
Danny Williams will be launching the new provincial brand at a news conference tomorrow.
Bond Papers told you about it a week ago. We also discussed the whole issue of "branding" the province back in march.
For the past week, hundreds of people have been receiving cryptic letters inviting them to a splendiferous, monumentalous phatasmagorical event in the province's history.
But they wouldn't say what it was for people who might have other things to do that day.
People on school boards wondered if it was an education announcement. People on hospital boards wondered if it was about health care.
Members of parliament wondered why Danny wanted them in St. John's rather than in Ottawa - where they belong - representing their constituents.
But the crafty crowd in the Department of Business just gave every inquiry the business. The jazz. The run-around. The waste of time.
Like the brand.
If the print ads and television spots already running are anything to go by, we can say three things up front:
1. The name of the province is now being presented in Danny-blue. Now there's a non-partisan rebranding if we never saw that old chestnut before.
2. The brand messaging is all focused inward, rather than outward. In itself that is nothing short of bizarre.
3. Someone made a heckuva lot of dough for a lick of blue paint and a bunch of hoary lines that sound more like the start of the Danny-brand's next election campaign rather than an effort to re-focus the province.
Oh yeah and after three years effort, tomorrow's launch represents the only accomplishment of the Business department to date.