OK, I’m not really a Rhode Islander. I moved here from across the border in Connecticut in 1968, but I’m starting to think like a Rhode Islander.

It’s taken awhile, but I’ve learned how to give directions by referencing where places used to be, like Sholes skating rink, Almacs at Hoxsie Four Corners, and S&S Drug. I know what quahogs, coffee cabinets and Del’s (it’s not frozen lemonade, it’s Del’s) are. And what was once considered a hop and skip away such as a drive to Newport have actually become treks, although I doubt I will ever become as provincial as the woman in the story Debbie Smith once told me.

Debbie, who worked for former Governor Carcieri, moved here from the Midwest. Soon after arriving she stopped at the Newport Creamery on West Shore Road (where Boat World used to be) for soup and a sandwich. She sat at the counter and struck up a conversation with the woman sitting beside her. The woman had spotted her car and its Illinois license plate. The conversation went something like this:

“Are you from out of town?”

Debbie said she was moving to the state and the woman announced that was a coincidence because, “I just moved, too.”

Debbie felt a sense of kinship. Here was a fellow traveler sinking roots in Rhode Island.

“Where are you from?” she asked.

“We’re moving from Cranston to Warwick,” the woman declared.

Debbie only joked about that exchange if she learned you weren’t “really” a Rhode Islander. She knew Rhode Islanders might miss the humor, and in all likelihood take offense that moving from Cranston to Warwick is not a big deal.

If Betsy Wall had only had a similar conversation in a coffee shop, breakfast nook or local tap, she might have better understood the Rhode Island psyche.

Betsy was the six-figure salaried expert from Massachusetts who was going to sell the state to the rest of the world as the state’s chief marketing officer. Last Monday, under a cloak of secrecy made all the more suspenseful because the governor’s office wouldn’t disclose anything until the announcement, the Commerce Department rolled out a new slogan – “Rhode Island: Cooler & Warmer” – along with a logo bearing striking similarity to the Saturn automobile emblem. Instead of the rings of Saturn, think the sails of a ship.

No matter how you think of it, the campaign was a space shot.

It didn’t take long for people to weigh in. In a matter of hours, it was fodder for cartoonist Charlie Hall. Then came the revelation that the skateboard scene featured in the Rhode Island video was shot in Iceland. More shortcomings, not to mention indignities, were heaped on the campaign as it came to light that claims of the state’s historical sites were vastly exaggerated and, thanks to the questioning of Gene Valicenti on his morning WPRO show, that Wall didn’t even know what Gaspee Days is. Naturally, with every development, the media rubbed in that this campaign is costing $5 million and just the logo and slogan had set the state back $400,000.

It seemed just about everyone had an idea for a slogan. They popped up like mushrooms on social media and provided plenty of material for commentary. People were outraged that the governor had turned to an outsider to tell the rest of the world what’s great about Rhode Island. Worse yet, we were paying Rhode Island bucks to out-of-state creative advisors when Rhode Island School of Design is known worldwide for just that.

At first the governor urged people not to be so negative and said that it could all be fixed. Finally, she buckled to Rhode Island opinion and ditched the campaign.

Betsy surely would have benefited from getting to know the state before attempting to sell it to the rest of the world. You think she would have test marketed the slogan and other material with key players, or better yet, brought it to Newport Creamery to see what folks had to say.

The irony is that the campaign generated more attention than anyone dreamed possible. It made national network news and got thousands of online views. Technically, it worked. Rhode Island made a splash.

What might people thinking of spending their money here remember from all the fracas?

I think I’m warm if I say they’ll think Rhode Islanders are fiercely proud of their state and its quirks. And that’s cool.