COLUMBUS, Ga. — Columbus State University might benefit from reading the dateline preceding this sentence, as the school’s communications staff appears to have forgotten what city it’s in.
In a recent post made to the university’s official Facebook account on January 16, 2023, CSU shared an article from MSN.com titled “The 14 most amazing attractions in Columbus.”
Unfortunately for the Georgia-based university, its post featured a prominent photo of the National Veterans Memorial and Museum in Columbus, Ohio instead.
According to CSU’s Strategic Communications + Marketing web page, “all publications from the university should reflect the overall image, message and mission of the university.”
It is unknown how the entirety of the university’s communications department was somehow unable to catch this egregious error before publication. The well-known national memorial in Ohio could not legitimately be mistaken to be in Georgia. As a state-funded educational institution, it almost seems impossible for a communications error like this to have occurred.
It is possible that a naive social media manager may have mistaken the Ohio museum for the National Infantry Museum located here in Columbus, Georgia, though a simple internet search prior to publication would have prevented such an enormous misidentification; the buildings and grounds look nothing like each other whatsoever.
The fumbled post also highlights the irony of its nature, as it was intended to bolster local tourism in the Columbus, Georgia area. If local institutions are not even able to identify their own city within their own social media posts, how could these same institutions expect anyone else to? Better yet: how could they expect anyone to even take them seriously?
The aMaZinG tourism post comes just days after American Airlines announced it will be ceasing its operations at the Columbus Georgia Airport, citing low demand and a lack of profitability as the reason for the airline’s departure. There were simply not enough local flyers for the airline to continue its service at CSG.
As the city’s outbound communications continue to inadvertently create a parody of its own brand, this recent post from CSU appears to demonstrate how ‘talented and educated people’ aren’t likely to stick around.
We at the Muckraker are sure of one thing: the university has perfectly displayed the true brand of Columbus, Georgia, even if it wasn’t in the way it had intended.
Perhaps we should stop excusing inadequacy while simultaneously claiming aMaZingNesS to the world.
Facts are stubborn things — and we’ll keep publishing them, whether city officials like them or not.
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