The Governor of New York state has mounted a controversial campaign to re-shape the “I love New York” logo, which helped to revive the city’s fortunes in the darkest days of the 1970s and was copied all over the world.
Andrew Cuomo, a rising star in American politics and a potential future presidential candidate, this week announced a $5 million campaign to “re-invent” the iconic logo.
It appears, however, that the logo has become almost too well-known, being recast on T-shirts and signs from Moscow to Madrid to advertise cities and scores of smaller products.
The Governor planned to revive the slogan, but in place of the heart, New Yorkers were asked to sketch the thing they loved most about the state. The advertising firm BBDO, which was hired to oversee the campaign, suggested a slice of pizza, a beach ball or the state’s tourist destinations.
So far, New Yorkers have responded with bitter puns about the damage the governor was wreaking on their heart. “Have a heart Andy,” ran a headline in the Daily News.
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“So all that old tourist schlock that says “I heart NY” just became collector’s items,” tweeted Celeste Headlee, an opera singer. “No more heart.”
The original design was commissioned in 1975 by a city that was dirty, on the brink of bankruptcy and rife with violent crime. “They wanted a little ad campaign that could somehow change all that,” Milton Glaser, the logo’s designer, said recently.
Mr Glaser said he was asked to contribute to the new campaign, but only when it was nearly finished. He did not heart the new logos. “I saw one that said, “I pizza NY,’ he told the New York Post. “I don’t get it.”