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New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants more people to visit the Big Apple – especially international travelers. To help reach his goal of 50 million tourists per year, NYC & Co. (New York City’s marketing and tourism department) worked with ad agency Bartle Bogle and Hegarty (ironically, a British ad agency partially owned by France’s Publicis Groupe) to come up with print, online and television ads that will lure travelers around the world to New York City.
The new campaign has been called whimsical. I call it awful. Maybe I’m overly negative because I grew up across the Hudson River in New Jersey and find it hard to swallow a New York City ad campaign that couples cartoon imagery with some of the best sites, sounds and experiences in the world. Obviously, I’m not the international target market that NYC & Co. is trying to reach with this ad campaign, so I suppose it doesn’t matter that I don’t like what I see of it so far.
What could be so awful you ask? Let your imagination wander for a second then check it out after the jump.
And here’s a sneak peak of the new New York City ad campaign artwork courtesy of Advertising Age.
What do you think? Love it or hate it? Will this concept boost New York City tourism? I’m not buying it. Never once have I been in New York City (any of the five boroughs) and thought, “my, what a whimsical town.” Well, maybe once or twice in college, but that’s another story.
But seriously, what do you think of this campaign? Does it accurately reflect the brand image of New York City?
Chris! Thank you so much for that site! You cannot imagine the many times I have been to NYC and thought why there wasn’t an easier way to find bathrooms! Now I just print out maps for the particular area I am visiting and go! It so easy to read and I just love it!! It cant get any better than this!! NO more Port-o-potties for me!!!
Chris, Thanks for sharing the link. That would have been incredibly helpful to me back at the first Earth Day concert in Central Park in New York City in 1991 or so when I wandered aimlessly around for about 45 minutes trying to find a bathroom because the lines for the port-o-potties were so long!
I have found a great resource for all traveling to NYC. NYRestroom.com provides an online, community-created map of all public accessible restrooms in NYC. Maps can be printed out or accessed via handheld Internet device. For more info, check out NYRestroom.com.
As a Brit and potential target market, this does nothing for me. Looks like some wannabe hippy got their way at the advertising agency.
Ugh I Love NY was soooooo much better.
As a fellow Jersey girl, I agree wholeheartedly. This is terrible! What were they thinking?
kk
1668 days ago
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