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What's up with those Birkie slogans? by Nina Albanese-Kotar What's in a name? Evidently a lot because both the formalname and nickname of our beloved Worldlopet/FIS marathon are registeredtrademarks, a fact we're reminded of with every headline in the Birch Scroll. So, too, is the slogan, but slogans convey far more. In a few words, a slogancaptures the spirit and personality of an event or a product. In the 20-plus years I have been skiing the Birkie andKorte, the slogan of the American Birkebeiner has changed a number of times,perhaps mirroring changes in the event itself. Here is a sample: "In your father's tracks to victory over yourself" (1984) I like the first slogan the best, but it was borrowed from the oldest, longest and most respected of races, the 90K Vasa in Sweden, and the slogan shows real class. "The race everyone wins" is the dumbed-downAmerican version, which captured the zeitgeist of the '80s so effectively lampooned by the animated movie The Incredibles: "When everyone is special,nobody is." The multidimensional qualities of the event started to be captured with the 2001 slogan, but that bulleted list wins the Duh! award.Thereafter the snowball got rolling and the slogan further deteriorated both inwording and concept. However, I really take issue with the latest slogan. Yes,the Birkie is a challenge, but it ceased to be an adventure about 30 years ago.Adventure implies an element of the unknown as well as self-sufficiency.Today's race (the weather not withstanding) is just too well-organized and toowell-scripted. I have more of a sense of adventure when I hike or ski theBirkie trail alone. (I feel especially intrepid about 4 o'clock in theafternoon when the thermometer starts to nose dive and I still don't know whereI am.) As for the "Live the Life" or "Live the Birkie" element of the phrase, to me it smacks of the socioeconomic elitism of which we are alltoo guilty (whether we care to admit it or not). Imagine a sonorous voice-over:"Yes, you too with enough disposable income and flex time, can live the lifethe Birkie demands! Buy a home in northern Wisconsin, sacrifice your social life and spend your kids' college fund on ski equipment." Criminy. We might as well adopt slogans like these: "Got Skis? Got Wax? Got Money?" Did you ever see one of those snooty bumper stickers that read, "I've skied the Birkie … have you?" The subtext blares "neener, neener,neener!" Give me a break. I won't let my cynicism get the upper hand here. There are actually some phrases I do like that are rooted in my own and my family's experience. In an essay on women skiers I wrote years ago (Birch Scroll,1986), I paraphrased Garrison Keillor: "Lake Woebegon may be where all the women are strong, the men are good looking, and the children are above average, but Hayward, Wisconsin, is where the strong women go to get lost in a crowd of good-looking men." The participation of women in the Birkebeiner has remained static over the years, so the phrase stands just as true today. The guys my age are noticeably grayer, and nose icicles have never been much of a turn on, but there is a pitch here (for heterosexual women at least): "Come ski behind some cute butts in shiny Lycra." I have teased my husband at every opportunity that I did not see the fine print on our marriage certificate "And thou shalt Birkie foreverand ever, Amen." There's a thread here about getting sucked into a tradition (whether you mean to or not),something like "Bet you can't ski just one" or "It's a whopper – you'll get hooked," which is a play on the Hayward muskie connection. But I also like the phrase my daughter Katie coined at age 8: "It's not a family activity if everyone in the family isn't participating."With all the different events spread out over four days, everyone can get intothe act. Even volunteering takes on participatory status. The idea that cross-country skiers belong to one big familyis appealing. So maybe a simple parental injunction like "Go outside and play!"would work. Or, viewing this activity through rose-colored glasses, "We're one big happy family here!" But that sentiment may be rooted in a deep denial that the family dynamics are rooted in endorphin addiction. Perhaps people need something more poetic and inspirational.At the 2006 opening ceremony, I noted the Ojibwe prayer, "To not be better than my brother, but to be better than myself," which certainly recalls the Vasa's slogan "to victory over yourself." Maybe something more existential would work: "Birkie! What a trip! It starts at Telemark." In the end though, simple pragmatism may entice more firstcomers: "Just come and do the damn thing!" The Birkebeiner events are certainly multifaceted and perhaps no one phrase can capture the essence of the experience any single individual will have. But we need to get beyond registered trademarks and copyright protection and try harder to be less trite, less banal, more inspirational and more universally appealing. Of course, I reserve all rights to the above suggestions. Nina Albanese-Kotar splits her time between Eau Claire and Cable, Wisconsin. She is trained in counseling psychology and is currently working in public health preparedness. She has completed 17 Birkies and three Kortes.
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