THIS bus promoting Glasgow must have raised a few eyebrows as it tootled along the streets of Edinburgh back in 1986 – but then, Mr Happy and the Glasgow’s Miles Better campaign got just about everywhere…

Glasgow Times:

The awardwinning and unforgettable strategy to rid Glasgow of its negative image brought the city worldwide publicity, with reported sightings of stickers in the Himalayas and in a town called Khabarovsk, 6000 miles east of Moscow. It even made it to the Berlin Wall, as the Evening Times reported in 1987.

Glasgow Times:

Graffiti artists Norry and Mike painted the symbol “right under the noses of the guards in the watchtower to the right of the artwork, only yards from Checkpoint Charlie,” we reported.

Strathclyde University architecture student Malcolm Munro, took the photo. “There were quite a few students over from Glasgow in Berlin,” he said. “Obviously, some of them decided to get the message over.”

The campaign, which was launched in 1983, was driven by then Lord Provost Dr Michael Kelly, who wanted to promote Glaswegians and the city as Scotland’s major commercial and industrial centre, with first-rate tourist and conference facilities and one of the great art collections of Europe.

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Mr Happy became “a Glaswegian by adoption” according to our sister newspaper the Glasgow Herald, as his slogan appeared on buses, cars, shop windows and billboards across the country and beyond.

It was undoubtedly a masterstroke. But a Glasgow’s Miles Better bus in Edinburgh? That’s just pure cheek….