Serving the Teesside Business Community | 15
The Business Buzz
With award-winning writer Harry Pearson
Cooking up an identity crisis
In March I had the privilege of standing next to the statue of Captain James Cook that faces the inlet named in his honour in the Alaskan city of Anchorage . Two hundred years before Alaska became the USA ’ s biggest oil producer , Captain Cook charted much of the state ’ s southern coast . There are places named after him all over what is comfortably the largest ( and emptiest ) state in the US . The plaque on the statue in Anchorage says that Cook was a Yorkshireman .
Of course if they ’ d been strictly accurate the Americans who made the plaque would have replaced it with one in 1972 that said Cook was born in Teesside .
Then another in 1974 that said he was from Cleveland and , perhaps , more recently a fourth that said he hailed from the Tees Valley . Life , you may conclude , was simpler in the 18th Century .
To my mind , the confusion over the name of the region doesn ’ t benefit the area and the constant chopping and changing seems to leave people from other parts of the country vaguely baffled as to where we are in the world . ( The map on display in Anchorage ’ s swanky Captain Cook Hotel actually has Whitby located in East Anglia , but that ’ s another story ).
Recently the kerfuffle over what most of us still think of as Teesside Airport , but which we should really be calling Durham Tees Valley Airport , and the apparent
Above : Show me the way to Teesside ... or is it Tees Valley ? Right : Captain Cook statue in Anchorage , Alaska .
determination of some people in Yarm to break away and join North Yorkshire has brought the whole thing into focus again .
A distinctly snooty Geordie I met recently said he understood Yarm ’ s point of view because “ It ’ s a rather lovely place , after all ”. Well , so is the city of Durham , but it doesn ’ t announce its intention to slink away from Easington and Ferryhill and cosy up to bonny Cumbria instead , does it ?
Fans of Middlesbrough are often taunted by those from Sheffield , Leeds , Barnsley and the like with chants of “ Yorkshire rejects ! Yorkshire rejects !”. This is probably the only time the Local Government Act of 1972 has given birth to an insult . Some people from Teesside – the late , great Brian Clough , for example – feel passionate about being part of Yorkshire , while others reject the idea of being lumped in with “ that Geoffrey Boycott lot ”.
When it comes to Yarm , there is a precedent for secession . I was born and brought up in Great Ayton , which was originally in the new county of Cleveland . However , the villagers rose up in protest . We all signed a petition and one Sunday afternoon drove down the A19 in a long convoy of cars to post it through the letterbox at County Hall in Northallerton . The decision was reversed and the boundary moved a mile or so north . Great Ayton remained in North Yorkshire , though Newton-under- Roseberry , where many of my schoolmates lived , didn ’ t .
Rebranding a product – whether it ’ s a sandwich or a region – is a tricky business , as likely to end up alienating the loyal core as it is to attract new interest . If it ’ s handled badly you end up with something muddled that means nothing to anyone .
Renaming can work , of course . It ’ s hard to imagine Brad ’ s Drink would have become a global brand , or Backrub , Pete ’ s Super Submarines or Research in Motion either , but as Pepsi Cola , Google , Subway and Blackberry they have conquered the world .
Teesside has had enough name changes and rebrands over the past 40 years , but if anyone ever thinks it ’ s time for another one , then I have a suggestion .
We should build on our association with a massively respected figure with global reach and a positive image everywhere from the UK to Tonga via the Falkland Islands and the USA .
There ’ s no doubt we could do a lot worse than becoming Cook County .