Email Tom with feedback and ideas for new columns. tompol @earthlink.net I write public relations features for a young man by the name of Jordan Anderson. Anderson, 18, is on the fast track to NASCAR as a driver, working his way up through its farm system. I've been writing articles about him for two years and getting them published in magazines. It's a breeze because Jordan is solid with faith and integrity rare for a fellow his age. He's forged a sparkling image and he lives it.

Jordan speaks to groups about his faith, and despite racing's demands, he serves his community and spends time with his family as much as possible. He's a businessman, too, securing sponsors for his team. In an era when athletes get attention for the wrong reasons, it's refreshing to see a young man with his head on right.

His dad said something last week that made me think. "The problem with an image," he said, "is you have one whether you want to or not. It might as well be a good one."

He's right. There was a time when your actions did all the talking and your image flowed from that. We called it character. Companies used to be as good as their word. But like many things gone wrong in this country, a lot of executives believe you can manufacture a good image whether it's true or not. An industry sits at their feet, devoting itself to image making: advertising and public relations and its practitioners love a concept known as branding.

Branding, yes. Sticking an identity to something. I remember seeing farmhands branding cattle on my grandfather's farm down in Double Branches. Ear tags had not come along, so the cowboy-like practice of sticking a red-hot iron against a cow's hide worked well, as it has since the time of ancient Egyptians.

Branding cattle, in effect, says, "I own this." Branding in advertising says, "I own these qualities," whatever they may be. Today, however, branding goes way beyond burning a bull's backside. It's an industry that burns backsides in different ways by overstating what folks stand for even when they fail miserably. Bank of America's tagline once said "Higher Standards." Right. Citigroup's former tagline was "Citi Never Sleeps." Someone must have slept though.

The word, "brand," originally referred to anything hot or burning, a burning stick, for instance. Today, "brand" refers to an organization's mission to burn an image of itself into your mind. Done well, taglines make products, services, and companies memorable. I don't have to tell you what these taglines represent. You know. "Just Do It" ... "Don't Leave Home Without It" ... "Snap, Crackle, Pop."

A bad tagline, however, betrays a muddled image. It comes across as meaningless, vague, or pretentious. Some taglines are just plain irritating. Among the worst, "Eat Jimmy Dean" (Cannibalism anyone?), Delta Airline's "We Get You There" (I sure hope so), and Tyson's "We're Chicken" (Afraid of what?).

Lincoln County uses the phrase, "Georgia's Freshwater Coast," on billboards. That's a good one because no one else can claim that quite like Lincoln County. The Chamber of Commerce uses the phrase, "Where Man and Nature Walk Together," on its website. Well, that can be said of just about every county, except maybe Fulton.

Having two taglines is confusing, kind of like having two names. Who are you? Really, who are you? Maybe we could combine the two: Lincoln County, Where Man and Nature Walk Together Along Georgia's Freshwater Coast." Of course, that's too long and printing it on promotional giveaways such as pens, key fobs, and other marketing trinkets wouldn't work. A good tagline is brief and memorable.

Anyone can adopt a tagline and it can say most anything. A witty friend of mine over this way, a writer, hands out business cards with the phrase ... "Quality Since 1962." He was born in 1962. And one day a handy man stopped by and left his card on my door, "What You Want Done Today."

Suppose everyone branded themselves, but thanks to Divine intervention their taglines told the truth. On their forehead they'd place logos and beneath them a phrase of shining candor. "Sneaky As A Snake." "Born To Lie." "Too Big For My Britches." "Crooked As A Barrel Of Fish Hooks." "Just Fell Off The Turnip Truck."

On the good folks in this world, we seed things like "Good As Gold." "An Angel On Earth," and "Generous To A Fault."

What would yours be?

The Red Devils "Go Big Red" is more of a rallying cry but if the team had a tagline maybe it would be "Losing's Not An Option." Marketing experts would point out, however, that you never associate your organization with the word "losing" in any way.

One thing's for sure, we can't escape those who want to sell their product and services. They keep pushing their image at us, and that's why branding can be such a royal pain. It irritates me to watch TV and have to endure the network logo that never leaves the corner of the screen.

Worst of all are those labels stuck on tomatoes, pears, bananas, onions, and other produce. That's one way to make an image stick, but I don't like it. Peeling them off tears a hole in the skin. I don't know who started this madness but I'd like to take them behind the woodshed. I remember years ago impostor onions claiming to be Vidalias hit the market and soon a campaign to brand the real Vidalia onion began. Maybe that's where the silly produce label business began.

Taglines and logos are part of our capitalistic society. They're here to stay. As a writer, I've made money developing taglines and I can assure you it isn't easy ... if you do it right. You don't go with the first thing that pops into your mind. Are you listening Jimmy Dean? But it so easy to tell the truth. And that's why writing about up-and-coming stars like Jordan Anderson, a true role model, makes my work so rewarding. His image will stick because it's not an image. It's who he is. It's too bad corporate America believes a copywriter's clever phrase makes their image stick. It doesn't. Not these days.