Florida changes FLA USA slogan

Another can't resist article, this time from the St. Petersburg Times: Seeking space between state and USA. It seems that Visit Florida is changing its FLA USA slogan with, natch, Visit Florida. That's fine. FLA USA always was a little odd. But the reason behind the change is fairly chilling:

Unpopular or unpatriotic as this notion may be, a brand name that hypes USA probably is not the smartest way these days to lure foreign tourists to the Sunshine State. "Florida" probably still has plenty of overseas sun-'n'-fun allure, but USA conjures up some pretty negative opinions in more than a few countries.

The columnist goes on to talk about a recent Pew Research Center survey that found that Europe, the Middle East and Asia still aren't thrilled with the U.S.

In Britain, Germany and Canada - three countries Florida's tourism industry depends on - favorable opinions of the United States fell from the comfortable 70- and 80-percent rankings five years ago to the 40s and 50s this year.

But, ahem, even though you can take the USA out of Florida, you can't take Florida out of the USA. I mean, wouldn't they still know that's where they're going?