Cincinnati has long possessed more cultural assets than most other cities its size and has just spent $2 billion to add exciting new attractions, so it's an ideal time to roll out ads touting "New Cincinnati."

The tagline for the new ad campaign pitched to visitors and conventioneers puts Cincinnati in some heady company: "New York, New Orleans, New Cincinnati."

Greater Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau marketers are on the right track in crafting a positive national image for the "Cincinnati brand," even if the $145,000 ad budget this year falls far short of what's needed. But it will take more than a slogan to make the world sit up and take note of "New Cincinnati." Only this region's leaders and people can build Cincinnati into the kind of "brand" that creates buzz far beyond the Tristate.

We need to tout Cincinnati's unique assets and stop defining ourselves in relation to other cities. Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani made people forget that city's earlier financial and crime mess. He took charge so forcefully that he rescued the New York "brand" and became closely identified with it. New York also ran one of the most brilliant image campaigns of all time - the "I Love New York" campaign with a red heart substituting for the word "love." Imagine that: Tough as titanium New York, where competition is fierce to be the best of the best, yet the almost corny "I Love New York" image campaign worked because New Yorkers and visitors really do love the place. Whatever slogans Cincinnati uses, it won't succeed unless we communicate that Cincinnatians and visitors really do love this place.

Cincinnati doesn't lack for stars such as Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra's Paavo Jarvi or world-class events such as Tall Stacks or unique attractions such as the new Underground Railroad Freedom Center. It has so many new museums and stadiums opening it's staging a Festival of the New. Sure, Cincinnati still needs to upgrade its public schools, grow its nightlife, cater to young creatives, move faster to becoming a 24-hour-a-day city. But Cincinnati is renewing itself, and that constant spirit of renewal will sell this city better than any ad "tagline" we could think up.