I Love New York

The logo for the I Love New York advertising many campaigns is a rebus created by Milton Glaser consisting of the capital letter "I", followed by a red heart symbol (♥), below which are the capital letters "N" and "Y", set in a rounded slab serif typeface called American Typewriter. The logo and advertising campaign have been used for decades to promote tourism in New York State — not just New York City, as many believe. The trademarked logo appears in souvenir shops and brochures throughout the state, some licensed, many not.

Logo

In 1977, William S. Doyle, Deputy Commissioner of the New York State Department of Commerce hired advertising agency Wells Rich Greene to develop a marketing campaign for New York State. Doyle also recruited Milton Glaser, a productive graphic designer to work on the campaign, and created the design based on Wells Rich Greene's advertising campaign. Glaser expected the campaign to last only a couple months and did the work pro bono. However, the innovative pop-style icon became a major success and has continued to be sold for years. In the popular mind (though this was not the original intention) the logo has become closely associated with New York City, and the placement of the logo on plain white T-shirts readily sold in the city has widely circulated the appearance of the image, making it a commonly recognized symbol.

The image became especially prominent following the September 11 terrorist attacks on the city, which created a sense of unity among the populace. Many visitors to the city following the attacks purchased and wore the shirts bearing the I Love New York logo as a sign of their support. Glaser created a modified version to commemorate the attacks, reading "I Love NY More Than Ever", with a little black spot on the heart symbolizing the World Trade Center site. The black spot approximates the site's location on Manhattan Island.

The logo has become a part of the American pop cultural canon, since inspiring countless knock-offs (t-shirts, bumper stickers, etc.) of the "I ..." form. New York, in turn, has tried to uphold its trademark by filing a total of nearly 3,000 trademark objections against imitatorsFact|date=December 2007. The logo has also been used in relation to other places. One example is New Cross, London, where the logo has been altered to read "I Love NX" due to the growing interest in the area because of a suggested rise of new music scene in the area. Another example is in North Yorkshire, England, where the NY is said to be North Yorkshire, rather than New York The logo has also been used by the band New Young Pony Club in their album sleeve for "Fantastic Playroom" but altered to read "I Love NYPC". The Parodies of this phenomenon, such as "I Spayed My Pets" (using a ♠) or "I Club My Wife" (using a ♣) have also appeared. A recently popular parody is a shirt reading I {have never been to} [in the shape of a heart] New York. [cite book
last = Byrne
first = Robert
title = 1,911 Best Things Anybody Ever Said
publisher = Ballantine Books
location = New York, NY
year = 1988
id = ISBN 0-449-90285-4] Another interesting variation is the recent "I [shamrock] NY", T-shirt reflecting the city's sizable Irish-American presence. Japan's largest professional wrestling promotion, New Japan Pro Wrestling, has sold a t-shirt with a logo reading "I Love NJ", as New Japan's initials are NJPW. Expressions beginning with [Heart (symbol)#"I Love..."|"I [heart symbol] …"] , based on a literal reading of the logo, have become a somewhat facetious way to express one's affection for something (e.g., the film "I Heart Huckabees"). Another recently popular parody is a shirt reading "I Feel Relatively Neutral About New York."

Influence

The logo style has been copied by other cities and similar T-shirts with names of other cities (e.g., London and Paris) are now common.

References

External links

* [http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/issueoftheweek/20030315/200/312 The History of New York's Marketing Campaigns, from the Gotham Gazette]
* [http://www.iloveny.com The Official New York State Tourism Website]
* [http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_29/c3943008_mz003.htm#ZZZVAWM2VAE Trademark Protection Battle for "I Love NY"] , "BusinessWeek"
* [http://www.believermag.com/issues/200309/?read=interview_glaser Interview with Milton Glaser] , "The Believer"
* [http://bigstonehead.net/newyork/ I Feel Relatively Neutral About New York T-Shirt]

ee also

* Tourism in New York City
* — horror film criticized for using the "I Love New York" music.
* I Love New York (TV series) — reality show competition featured on VH1