The Milwaukee Brand

[skrapheap]

The ad is for Penfield Children's Center. Ads in this campaign have been in circulation for awhile, and this is the first time i've seen it where i could clearly read "Milwaukee" on the kid's uniform.

Because i never saw the "Milwaukee" i never considered the ad to be offensive to Panther fans.

Perhaps Panther fans should boycott Kohl's

[ricestillfumbled]

Mar 20, 2012 13:35:21 GMT -6 illwauk said:

That ads been out for awhile, I remember it being on one of the bus canopies by my old apartment. I never thought much of it though... I just figured that instead of using generic uniforms, which you often see on these types of ads, they chose to use replicas of the two local college programs to put a more "hometown" spin on it... no harm intended.

Granted, I can see why many Panther fans/alums might get defensive about this seeing as how it was in a paper that has been less than kind to our program, but it does us no good to put a chip on our shoulder or adopt a mentality that the world is against us. That's exactly why the entire sports world laughs at Cleveland fans.

Never realized that. I rarely read the js so that might explain why I am seeing it for the first time now.

[illwauk]

Wow... apparently we're not the only black & gold-clad school whose mascot is a Panther named Pounce.

www.pncathletics.com/f/Mascot.php

I know... they're Division II... in the NAIA at that. But it does show how generic our identity really is.

[PantherU]

This is what I think we can safely assume this was deliberate. Any Panther fan knows it's a b**** of a time trying to find Panther apparel. So if it was on accident, we're supposed to believe they found a random jersey and threw it on the kid. Yeah right.

[PantherU]

Yeah, this is awesome. Comes from the Signature of a NinerNation.net member "49or Bust" - under the picture it says "Say NO to our slave name!"

LOVE IT.

[illwauk]

I think the comparisons to slavery are a bit extreme, but it makes a valid point none-the-less and the graphic itself is hilarious... I may have to steal the idea

[PantherU]

Mar 25, 2012 15:31:44 GMT -6 illwauk said:

I think the comparisons to slavery are a bit extreme, but it makes a valid point none-the-less and the graphic itself is hilarious... I may have to steal the idea

Please steal the idea.

I honestly don't think it's going to far. Obviously no one actually believes there is slavery there.

[illwauk]

Some interesting new looks for Mizzou: www.mutigers.com/genrel/12-uniform-gallery.html

I say interesting because not only have they phased out every bit of the old gold for athletic gold (yellow), not only are they also working in a lot of grey, but they're now emphasizing their oval-cat logo... hmm... who does this all remind you of?

[illwauk]

Remember when I suggested adding cream as an official school color? Well, Oregon's football team played their spring game in black, gold and cream (despite only one of the above being an official school color). Not too bad, but I would hope that we'd execute such unis much better than this.



(Since the photo won't show up, I'll post the link here: fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/528772_229651173807226_215050995267244_347101_428605803_n.jpg)

[Lutzow10]

Not only is it very hard to find professional grade panther merchandise, its almost impossible to find good versions of our athletic logos. Any logo that is large enough to do anything with is either really old like when they used to have purple or they are the generic only gold black and white logo. I have scoured the internet for a large version of the panther logo that incorporates the grey gradient tones and have yet to have any luck. It also bugs me that uwm doesnt push athletic branding more in one of the simplest ways u can. Having multiple logos. Most big schools have primary, secondary and/or alternate logos. As well as primary and secondary (some even have alternate) text style logos. Looking professional is key step in my opinion to becoming a successful program. And for god sake make the damn logos available. I honestly dont understand how in a technological day and age like this uwm isnt pushing out digital content. For one its cheap. Screen savers, wallpapers, iphone apps, and readily avalible logos not only are great things for already fans they promote, promote, promote. I mean if they wanted to save even more money they could have the damn art department and the IT department make the stuff. For basically free.

I am just tired of schools that dont put in the little effort it would take to boost their image. You want students at athletic events stop just hoping they will come and do something about it. They take it for a joke because the school doesnt truly take it seriously either. Im so sick and tired of half ass efforts and people sitting around on their asses hoping things will get better.


This is Panther Nation's time!

[PantherU]

Unfortunately, a lot of those things have already been brought up with the department - by myself and others - and ignored, time and time again.

[Lutzow10]

its so frustrating. especially when with a few minor improvements and changes, that would be so freaking simple to do, they could be so much better off than they are now. I mean its like they don't give a sh*t.

[PantherU]

What you have is a fundamental difference in identity both nationally/outstate and locally. In the Milwaukee area, UWM is largely the name people call the program. It's just too hard to call the program "Milwaukee" and have it used by the population, since "Milwaukee" can refer to so many things.

Outstate and beyond, UWM is Madison. There's just no getting around that, because technically they ARE UWM and they are a nationally prominent program, whereas we fly under the radar. If UWM were a significant program - even a significant mid-major like UTEP or UAB - the UWM moniker might stick if it were our only athletics brand like those two. But because we play both sides of the fence, and we're low-profile, the UWM brand cannot survive nationally.

So, instead of figuring out the answer to the problem - which Illwauk and I have already done - they've made the decision to let it sit and fester. Now they don't think of it as an issue, because if they did, they'd already have fixed it.

The obvious choice is to commit to the Milwaukee brand nationally by coming up with a variation of the city's name that can be used in everyday speech by the community. As I said, "Milwaukee" could mean anything. "UMil" would only mean one thing. It doesn't have to be UMil - as we've said, there are a bunch of ways they can switch around Milwaukee to get a local identity for the athletics program that doesn't use UWM - but it can't be Milwaukee itself. Milly, Wauky, MKE (hard to say though), someone creative can come up with more.

But there needs to be demand from the donors for something like that to happen. It's time we get donors involved in what we want to do, because I think they'd like a lot of the ideas we're putting together.

[skrapheap]

Aug 3, 2012 21:22:15 GMT -6 PantherU said:

Outstate and beyond, UWM is Madison. There's just no getting around that, because technically they ARE UWM and they are a nationally prominent program, whereas we fly under the radar. If UWM were a significant program - even a significant mid-major like UTEP or UAB - the UWM moniker might stick if it were our only athletics brand like those two. But because we play both sides of the fence, and we're low-profile, the UWM brand cannot survive nationally.

i'm curious as to how you're drawing that conclusion.

"Technically" or otherwise, UW-Madison is NOT "UWM."

For the first hundred-plus years of it's existence, UW-Madison was simply known as the University of Wisconsin, because it was alone. i don't know when the UW Extension was established, but i suspect it was well after the establishment of the university, which was chartered in the 1840s. There was no other public university in Wisconsin, so there was no need to distinguish the university from any other.

Teacher education institutions, called "Normal Schools" were established later. Whitewater's Normal School opened in 1868; i believe that at least one other had already been established by that time. The Normal Schools were separate from the University of Wisconsin, and were not confused with it.

What is now the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee was originally a normal school, and then a State Teachers College, and then a Wisconsin State College, a part of a system of public education which evolved separately from the University of Wisconsin, and was not confused with it.

Until UWM was created by a merger of the Wisconsin State College, Milwaukee and the University of Wisconsin's Milwaukee center, there were no other universities in the University of Wisconsin System: there was the University of Wisconsin and there were some two-year centers. Green Bay and Parkside opened their doors in 1968, more than 10 years after UWM was created.

That is the context in which the "University of Wisconsin" established its national and international reputation. That is also why the university's athletics programs are known as the Wisconsin Badgers.

The University of Wisconsin kept that name until the 1971 merger of the UW System and the Wisconsin State University system, and the names of all the member universities were changed to "UW-" Even now it's not uncommon for people outside the state to refer to UW-Madison as "the University of Wisconsin."

If anyone outside the state thinks "UWM" means "University of Wisconsin-Madison," that is a confusion that they are introducing; it's not the result of any marketing campaigns by UW-Madison or anyone else.

[illwauk]

Aug 6, 2012 8:08:20 GMT -6 skrapheap said:

Aug 3, 2012 21:22:15 GMT -6 PantherU said:

Outstate and beyond, UWM is Madison. There's just no getting around that, because technically they ARE UWM and they are a nationally prominent program, whereas we fly under the radar. If UWM were a significant program - even a significant mid-major like UTEP or UAB - the UWM moniker might stick if it were our only athletics brand like those two. But because we play both sides of the fence, and we're low-profile, the UWM brand cannot survive nationally.

i'm curious as to how you're drawing that conclusion.

"Technically" or otherwise, UW-Madison is NOT "UWM."

For the first hundred-plus years of it's existence, UW-Madison was simply known as the University of Wisconsin, because it was alone. i don't know when the UW Extension was established, but i suspect it was well after the establishment of the university, which was chartered in the 1840s. There was no other public university in Wisconsin, so there was no need to distinguish the university from any other.

Teacher education institutions, called "Normal Schools" were established later. Whitewater's Normal School opened in 1868; i believe that at least one other had already been established by that time. The Normal Schools were separate from the University of Wisconsin, and were not confused with it.

What is now the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee was originally a normal school, and then a State Teachers College, and then a Wisconsin State College, a part of a system of public education which evolved separately from the University of Wisconsin, and was not confused with it.

Until UWM was created by a merger of the Wisconsin State College, Milwaukee and the University of Wisconsin's Milwaukee center, there were no other universities in the University of Wisconsin System: there was the University of Wisconsin and there were some two-year centers. Green Bay and Parkside opened their doors in 1968, more than 10 years after UWM was created.

That is the context in which the "University of Wisconsin" established its national and international reputation. That is also why the university's athletics programs are known as the Wisconsin Badgers.

The University of Wisconsin kept that name until the 1971 merger of the UW System and the Wisconsin State University system, and the names of all the member universities were changed to "UW-" Even now it's not uncommon for people outside the state to refer to UW-Madison as "the University of Wisconsin."

If anyone outside the state thinks "UWM" means "University of Wisconsin-Madison," that is a confusion that they are introducing; it's not the result of any marketing campaigns by UW-Madison or anyone else.

Regardless of whether or not UW-Madison (or whoever else) is responsible for the confusion, the fact remains that it exists and needs to be addressed. It's not just out of state either... there's been plenty of times when I referred to "UWM" right here in Wisconsin and people thought I was referring to UW-Madison. That's because it's intuitive for people to think to the effect of "If Green Bay is UWGB and Whitewater is UWW, then Madison must be UWM."

Besides, all state-controlled four-year institutions in Wisconsin have had the UW tag for over 40 years now. That means pretty much everyone under the age of 50-55 or so doesn't even remember a time when there was only one University of Wisconsin, hence the confusion.