I (HEARTH) NY - BRANDING AND SELLING THE CRISE

We are all amazed by NewYork even though we heaven't ever visited it. 
We all (hearth) NY 
That magical advertisement campaign! 
Isn't it a legend? It is so legendary that we can find an adapted logo for any city in the world. The creator of that graphic image is THE Milton Glaser.  Now at the age of 88 (in 2017) his name still equals to the creator of the MOST famous city branding identity ever created. 

The campaign took off mid 70's. And Glaser says: I did it for free. At the beginning, it wasn’t even copyrighted, because for the first 10 years the idea was to let everyone use it, so that it would proliferate and enter into the culture. I agreed to do it as a pro bono job because it was of benefit to the state.”
Even though he says not being paid for his work; we have to remember that it was a several million dollars budget project. And it is clear that the campaign paid off quite well in years. 

But what was the reason to start up that campaign at all? 
Do we know about it anything?
That action must be taken 'cos city was crashed to the ground at that time.

This was one of many negative advertisements by big cooperations that claim to end their operations in NY. AlItalia Airlines announced that they started a direct line from Philadelphia to Rome without bouncing from NewYork City. The image in the poster is quite strong. The Statue of Liberty has been sunken...



This video is quite interesting. It shows the night of widespread blackout in New York during the summertime. Many shops had been robbed. Especially the ones sell electronics like expensive consumers' products. It is said that this is the night which allowed the future legends of  NY scene rappers to own the necessary equipment for music production. What a connection right?



I (hearth) NY was not only a graphics focused campaign. It supported by TV commercials also.  These were city tourism-oriented advertisements, talking about fair price packages that aimed to attract the US market. Famous characters of the city appeared on these adds for some seconds while dancing, singing and shouting the slogan.

All that campaign was the idea of a consortium led by real estate investors of the town.  This wasn't a pure social reaction to the situation of the town. But an act of business. Because of the condition of downtown NewYork, headquarters of big companies and wealthy citizens moved to outskirts. This means an extreme loss of income for real estate developers. Rebranding a city in these conditions hoped to increase the value of their properties for sure. And this city-wide gentrification worked quite good. What do you think? 

If you are interested in the branding of NewYork I suggest you to read the great work of Miriam Greenberg; Branding New York: How a City in Crisis Was Sold to the World