pdp1@EARTHLINK.NET on mon 4 aug 03
Hi Janet, and all interested parties of this topic...
I am curious!
How did it do anything for New York?
I missed that part...
Lots of people have seen the bumper sticker...and...
No one I know of, or as I can imagine, has altered any
pre-existant opinion of New York City for having seen the
sticker.
No one from the Mid-West or the West has thought, "Oh! How
charming! I now wish to move to the Bronx!" or anything...
Or did they?
Tell me?
Who was influenced..and how? And to what import exactly, or,
generally?
Thanks!
Phil
Las Vegas
----- Original Message -----
From: "Janet Kaiser"
The slogan < I (heart) NY > was produced from the doodle of
one
of the interviewees and cost nothing... He lamented the fact
it
was that way and wished he had a single or even .25 cent for
each
time it has been used since.
Did it do it's job at the time? Certainly! I don't think the
imitations were any bad thing, because the kudos remained
with
NY.
It was a simple, neat message which gives a warm and fuzzy
feeling in what amounted to four letters... That is
"marketing
genius".
Janet Kaiser on tue 5 aug 03
I remember it well, Phil... 'twas back in the 70s... The
Rockerfeller Centre was buzzing, no more soliciting allowed on
Times Square or a half dozen prostitutes per block and they had
just finished building Central Plaza and the World Trade
Centre... Sure there were still a lot of no-go sleazy
areas and Central Park was not a place to venture on your own in
the dark...
Never the less... there was a massive surge of activity and
optimism in NY back then. A big "clean up" and that slogan was
one of many ways of letting the world know that NY was definitely
cleaning up its act. I was particularly attentive to that radio
programme, because I was in NY back then... mid 1970s. No, there
was naturally no nationwide surge of instant affection for what
was and remains a big and brash city, but that little heart sort
of made New Yorkers think, "Yes, we do have a heart and pride in
our city" and Outsiders think, "It may be loud and crowded, but
it does have a heart". Tourists actually started arriving via JFK
to visit and not only immigrants from the Old World looking for a
new life...
And it was not just City Hall and Wall Street... Artists were
leading the way in a lot of the reassessment and recovery of the
urban environment... Those rows of old brownstone tenements were
being taken over and restored, bringing them out of slum
status... Now they are valuable real estate. The notorious Bowery
is -- I have heard -- now a really pleasant area with green
spaces, pavement caf=E9s and the likes. Haarlem has almost ritzy
streets with not a burned out car in sight.
People who are what you could call the upper 10.000 actually
chooses to LIVE in NY City and do not "escape" to their swanky
homes and mansions on Long Island each evening -- only weekends.
I think you have to be old enough to remember NY then and now to
appreciate just how much that city did recover from the doldrums
peculiar to a major immigration centre and port well in the hands
of organised crime... Other cities around the world send people
to learn from NY, London being a recent example.
Many who were asked about the impact of 11th September and how it
would affect NY short and long term referred to that era... It is
the gutsy response we would expect of NY and its motley crew of
citizens. We may all be older, wiser, more cynical, not
influenced by slogans and media in the naive way we used to be,
but that little sticker WAS a very pertinent part of the whole
feeling of optimism back then. Like I say, it said it all in just
four "letters"; I (heart) NY
Funnily enough, I bet most people today would say the whole thing
started in San Francisco! Thanks to Frank Sinatra crooning about
leaving his heart there! I did not loose my heart in NY, but I
could see that it was a city going places and regaining its
confidence in itself... Maybe you need that personal association
to make the slogan work as well as I perceive it to have done?
Like "whiter than white" washing powder... We may laugh at the
commercials and say what a load of hooey, but do we blame the
manufacturer when our underwear is actually a paler shade of grey
or pale pink because a red sock sneaked into the wash? Course
not! We still actually believe Persil/Omo/Surf wash whiter than
white... Subtle isn't it? And we all continue to think we are not
influenced by advertising?
And I bet an original sticker or mug from the NY campaign would
be considered a collectible these days... It would be interesting
to hear. Like any little part of history, all those commemorative
mugs and jugs and coasters... Millions made and then when they
are all broken and thrown out the few remaining ones become
valuable through their very rarity...
Sincerely
Janet Kaiser - sweltering again! This up and down in temperatures
is getting rather tiresome... Heating on one week, then lying
down in a darkened room with ice pack on the forehead the next...
Crazy or what?
*** IN REPLY TO THE FOLLOWING MAIL:
>I am curious! How did it do anything for New York?
>I missed that part...
>Lots of people have seen the bumper sticker...and...
>No one I know of, or as I can imagine, has altered any
>pre-existant opinion of New York City for having seen the
>sticker.
*** THE MAIL FROM pdp1@EARTHLINK.NET ENDS HERE ***
*** top of page reply was sent by Janet Kaiser ***
The Chapel of Art - Capel Celfyddyd
8 Marine Crescent - Criccieth LL52 0EA
Wales - UK - http://www.the-coa.org.uk
Tel: (++44) 01766-523570
Home of The International Potters=92 Path
Lois Ruben Aronow on tue 5 aug 03
>I remember it well, Phil... 'twas back in the 70s... The
>Rockerfeller Centre was buzzing, no more soliciting allowed on
>Times Square or a half dozen prostitutes per block
I think we lived in completely different NY's. Times Square wasn't
cleaned up until Guiliani in the 90s. When my office moved to Times
Square in '90 it was still a very scary (and exciting) place, but it
was*far* from cleaned up. The revitalization had nothing to do with a
slogan and everything to do with a mayor who was tough on crime and
put the city into a police state.
There *was* a small surge of optimism after the trade center was
built, but the city was in dire financial straits (remember the great
NY Post Headline "Ford to City: Drop Dead"?). The city was bankrupt
under Mayor Beame, and then into Koch's first term. =20
The way I remember it (which doesn't mean i'm right) is that the city
came up with a campaign in an effort to make money by drumming up
tourism. This is the story from www.nytourism.com=20
"History: the I Love NY design made it's debut in 1977 with ads
featuring Frank Sinatra, Morgan Fairchild and Yul Brenner. The
campaign is considered, by many, the most successful in history. The
campaign was designed to revitalize the New York economy. The ad
agency Wells, Rich and Greene conceived of the slogan to refer not
only to New York City, but New York state as well. To this day, the I
Love NY logo is seen around the world. "
I don't think the campaign did anything for the economy, but it was
successful in that it was one of the most recognized ad campaigns
ever. =20
>The notorious Bowery is -- I have heard -- now a really pleasant area =
with green
>spaces, pavement caf=E9s and the likes. Haarlem has almost ritzy
>streets with not a burned out car in sight.
Someone has been lying to you! Thanks for the chuckle.
>Other cities around the world send people
>to learn from NY, London being a recent example.
Actually, Guiliani sent a team over to London to study the transit
system.
>Funnily enough, I bet most people today would say the whole thing
>started in San Francisco! Thanks to Frank Sinatra crooning about
>leaving his heart there!=20
It was Tony Bennett. Frank Sinatra sang about NY.
Janet, I adore you. But those are really some rose colored glasses
you're looking at NY through. We are currently having a budget crisis
on par with the NY of the 70s. Families are making a mass exodus to
the suburbs (only this time its to New Jersey), graffiti, garbage and
crime are back, and the thing that sucks most is you can't smoke or
dance. Not that I do either.....
************
www.loisaronow.com
=46ine Craft Porcelain and Pottery
New Work for Summer 2003
New Show and Retail information
Janet Kaiser on wed 6 aug 03
>Actually, Guiliani sent a team over to London to study the
transit
>system.
Lois... Yes, he did. And it was to see exactly how NOT to develop
system if you want it to work! There is such a thing as taking
the best and worst case scenarios... Ken Livingstone, the Mayor
of London employed the former Guiliani employee/adviser who
sorted out the New York transit system to try to do the same
here...
Cheers
Janet - who obviously was in a different NY to you... Maybe it
was just the enthusiasm of youth and those rose coloured
spectacles I was wearing...? Or I did not grow old and cynical in
NY, but got out in time...?
*** top of page reply was sent by Janet Kaiser ***
The Chapel of Art - Capel Celfyddyd
8 Marine Crescent - Criccieth LL52 0EA
Wales - UK - http://www.the-coa.org.uk
Tel: (++44) 01766-523570
Home of The International Potters=92 Path
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