I Heart New York

The ever-readable Norman Geras posts another in his series of blasts at the Guardian and their authors. This latest post concerns something written by Decca Aitkenhead:

[S]ince 9/11 [New York] has commodified boastfulness into an entire industry, tirelessly dedicated to I Love [the paper version has the heart symbol] New York merchandise. The only alternative on sale in many parts of Manhattan is merchandise branded with I Love NYPD instead.

I Love New York was a clever response to 9/11, capturing both the city's need to win back fearful tourists, and the affection inspired by its trauma. All the same, had London been al-Qaida's target that day, I doubt they'd now be selling I Love The Met T-shirts on Oxford Street - and I wouldn't want them to be, either.

Emphasis mine, because as all New Yorkers, and a decent percentage of the rest of Americans and other Westerners know, the I [Heart] N Y campaign was not a response to 9/11, clever or otherwise. It was designed in the 1970's, as this site details.

History: the I Love NY design made its debute 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.

This reminds me of the previous (and not quite as successful) NY tourism campaign: "You've got to be crazy to live in New York. Crazy about..." followed by something like museums, or sodomy, as Saturday Night Live once had it.

Anyway, the rest of Ms. Aitkenhead's piece is similarly misguided, as Norman ably points out.