Saatchi & Saatchi fucks New York!

In the never ending saga of BDA "fucktardidness," Jim Edwards over at bnet, has a marvelous post on how Saatchi & Saatchi has charged New York State $17 million for a clip art squirrel. Apparently, they were asked to redesign the well known "I love (heart) NY" logo that's been around for 31 years. So, what did these douchenozzles do? They stuck a clip art squirrel and a butterfly on the existing logo, then billed them for $17 fucking million. And the fucking city paid it. I could understand if Charlie and Morris were still running the place. I mean $17 million doesn't go far when you're buying the latest Damian Hirst dead shark in formaldehyde scam, and you have to get a brand new "Roller" cos the ashtrays are full on the ten you already own... But New York... Shame on you!

Fuck, I would have charged them $50 million!

Comments

[the lower depths]

the interesting thing, to me, is that the additions to the logo: butterfly, squirrel and grass are the very things that new york is not known for.

according to that logo, the city of new york is upstate in the wild...

[Auntie Christ]

And its not very flexible for small scale usage- the wildlife will look like a couple blobs of ink and the bottom of the N and Y look like theyre breaking up. I have to believe they did the logo for free (looks like a support assistant did it in Word) and the rest of the campaign is 17 million. And why doesnt the state of NY support the small or minority owned graphic design shops, especially in a time of fiscal crisis?

[hated it]

Technically I heart NY refers to the whole state. Not the city.

Ergo, squirrels and animals in the logo. Its still a piece of shit.

[George Parker]

LD...
I thought the Bronx was upstate.

AC...
Remember when Mr 911, Rudy Giuliani, was making his run for President... Did he hire a NYC agency? No he went with some politico hacks in fucking DC. Probably got a deal... Wanker.

hated it...
Most people outside of NY dont even know its a state.
Cheers/George

[TOM MESSNER]

Did anyone suggest a rat?
They seem to have survived the Indians, the Dutch, the British; and I often see the little fellows scurrying across Madison Avenue on alternate parking litter removal days.

[ScandalSpoiler]

Take a deep breath everybody--

Didnt anyone read the following footnote appearing in the article?

*This item was corrected to reflect the fact that the campaign as a whole will cost $17 million, not Saatchi’s fee.

[Leon Jacobs]

That would be Charlie and Maurice.

[Imama]

could be right about that...one had that new painting of...Dung Muhammad under his arm heading for the museum or was it Piss Mohomet?
One or the other.

[George Parker]

TOM...
Surely it would have to be a cockroach?
Leon...
My bad... Same douchenozzle.
Scandal...
Yeah, but it reads better at $17 million. And, whatever it cost... It was a fucking rip-off. Plus, Saatchi deserves to have their nuts cut off.
Cheers/George

[slowmo]

Why would clients get agencies to redesign logos? Thats not their specialty...

[methinksdifferent]

my daughter could have thought that shit up.

its funny,

advertising has been a saving grace and a fucking curse for me at the same time.

as a creative vendor, i have to put up with agencies and their client baggage. plus, i have to buy you fuckers lunch all the time to boot.

even though it use to be way more frequent, if you didnt show up with gobs of cash when a gig was in play, i would have got out along time ago.

but, its the gift that keeps giving,

even though i get a vacuum cleaner appliance shoved up my ass while im cashing the checks. now that its not so easy come easy go anymore, it gives me time to think and read about how dysfunctional of a business this actually is.

makes me wonder, what the fuck are all the agency peeps doing all day in those fancy buildings?

if what i read here and that ad is a representation of whats going on, i feel sorry for all of us.

sorry for the ramble.

[spencerbrown@earthfriendlymoving.com]

great post... u are now my must read... because i was thinking thee 50 million would have been more like it...

[Auntie Christ]

Can they redo that logo to reflect the highest gasoline surtax in the nation (after Alaska), some of the highest school and property taxes, and an immense roster of people receiving social services?

[TOM MESSNER]

Auntie Christ leaves out New Yorks principal virtue in the Federal System. It (like New Jersey, CT, and CA) is one of the top donor states. Meaning it coughs up about 2.20 for every buck it gets back. Where does the vig go? To places like LA, MS, AL, FL, TN so they can have lower taxes and attract businesses from the donor states.
A great scam thats been going on since the New Deal and the TVA. New Jersey is particularly vulnerable as it ranks 50th in what it gets back, but its voters are lazy or notably charitable as they keep sending people like Lautenberg back to DC who find it beneath them to fight to get money back except if its am earmarked railroad station with his name on it.
Maybe the logo can be fluid. Meaning that it can have different addenda depending on the issue. Cant recall if anyone has ever done that so I wouldnt want to bet a bottle of Sobieski Vodka on its originality.

[the lower depths]

maybe arnell should design it with the various appendages and graphic nuances needed to convey the full depth and breadth of NY? his pepsi success speaks to his ability to milk accounts...

[5thFloorer]

To be fair to Saatchi, read the following comment left on the original post. Lets not invent any stories when there are real, egregious ones out there.

Jim,

I enjoy poking fun at government misappropriation and idiocy as much as the next guy, but you really think $17M was spent on logos? Isnt it customary to do even a cursory check of facts before running with a story? If you had done even the slightest bit of due diligence, say a google search or a peak at the NYTimes, you would have found that I Love NY did a full re-launched the campaign, not the logos, earlier this year. Having read some of these articles and seen stories on the news myself, i can tell you that in addition to logos, the state spent its $17 Million on seasonal and brand campaign advertising, a redesigned of travel publications and a re-design of the iloveny.com website. There are many things governments do that are worth poking fun at and that they owe the public apologies for. It looks like youre the one that owes the apology in this case and i sincerely hope you post a correction for your readers.

Zach

[George Parker]

Zach...
This is blogging. What the fuck does it have to do with facts. Why do you think Matt Drudge is so popular? Having said that, for the public to swallow it, there always has to be a germ of truth in the accusation... Thats why ad people are at the bottom of the trust totem pole, along with second hand car salesmen and lawyers, not to forget politicos. At the end of the day, the Adverati ripped off NYC. You have to know that.
Cheers/George

[The Cartoonist]

Tom,

Maybe the logo can be fluid. Meaning that it can have different addenda depending on the issue. Cant recall if anyone has ever done that

I think weve got that already. Its the dreadful London 2012 Olympic Games Logo...

[The Cartoonist]

George, can you please sort out the issue with quotation marks etc here in the comments? Cause they dont show up. :-)

[methinksdifferent]

i think the world could do with out quotation marks etc. it really hasnt gotten us any further, especially when you consider the current situation in the world today. the thing that really scares me about words, is its usage in advertising and media.

while i realize there is more then one way to say buy this shit,

ive noticed over the years ad folk tend to make that message complicated or even veiled so it doesnt appear that their actually stating, buy this shit, but suggesting to folk that it might be cool to give it some thought, with it being the shit you want them to buy.

over the years, i have seen only a few examples of very good ideas that entertained and said...... buy this shit.

yes, fuck the words and grammar. very few people will save you me or the client in this environment.

consumers will no longer allow themselves to be bullshitted so easily. they will respond to messages that get right to the point,

for example, help wanted ill work for food free toaster with bank deposit buy one get one free.

i see the jingle making a huge come back for 2 reasons:

first, we have not had a retro fad in a while.

also, consumers havent realized that all the cool,

usually random and unrelated licensed music advertisers always over pay for,

to jam down the consumers throats, * toyota-saved by zero and many more

is actually something which is suppose to add equity to the brand due to the association with the expensive music.

how does licensing music make you stand out in the crowd, if everyone with an ad budget is doing it? with any over saturation things become....generic. just like words or quotation marks. find something useful and needed by people and put a for sale sticker on it. you can use different color stickers that scream buy this shit. no quotations are needed.

[Tom Messner]

How fast things become retro.
A few years ago, it was common on these sites for quotation marks to be rendered as and for a close quote.
I used to just type QUOTE and then UNQUOTE...
Then to really get retro, theres always James Joyce (no relation to King Thomas Joyce The Unmentionable) who eschewed quotation marks for a simple
_____
before a piece of dialogue.
As for music...George probably remembers when five or six agencies pitching TWA were bidding for the rights to Up Up and Away by the Fifth Dimension, confident that if they bought the song, theyd buy the account. Foote, Cone, and Belding I think won the pitch and actually held the account long enough to fly to Europe and back as far as Gander.

[TOM MESSNER]

INteresting editing:
the signs for greater than and less than on the keyboard...do not reproduce here.
In my previous note, they should be in the third line.
An odd form of censorship. Not quite as funny as Joe Hellers in which every word in a letter home from an airman was deleted except Dear, but pretty good.

[don_draper]

George, I cannot believe I am writing this, but you are a fucktard. Yep. There, I said it.

For you not have all to have all your factsand blast Zach for pointing this out -- and your excuse -- this is a fucking blog?

For many people in the industry, myself included, you were (yes were) a voice of reason, someone with smart (ass) remarks to BDAs.

But alas, youre just a grumpy old man.

Why dont you get a job a Della Femina

[Amsterdandi]

My first inclination is: Never (re)touch a classic!

I get it - seasons, culture, arts, cuisine, squirrels… Come see and love all that is NY.

Given the ubiquitous charm of the IHeartNY logo, and the pride it instills in even the most nomadic native son and daughter worldwide (myself included), it is understandable city PR and marketing execs were wary of too much change.

But merely tepidly tweaking such a classic logo not only fails to take advantage of über agency $aatchi & $aatchi’s strengths - it also sorely fails to justify the multimillion-dollar price tag. (Note: This commentary focuses exclusively on logo change/$17 million is the cited overall campaign cost, including logo.)

S&S is best at its most dynamic, and clients should be sure they’re ready for a significant trajectory change before commissioning at this level. More interesting would be a review of the rejected ideas before what seems, to me, like cold feet set it (by S&S or NY?). The city could have saved much of its allocated rebranding budget by using an in-house intern. The resulting logo looks as if it did, anyway.

To quote an old SNL skit: “Who are the ad wizards who came up with this one?”

Having fun with a classic image is fine, truly. And the IHeartNY variations presented are, indeed, fun, almost clever... or should be if it were not for the obvious clip-art inspiration (which is another topic indeed, especially since the cockroach and rodent population of NY lacks representation, and what's up with the pitchfork anyway? The preferred method of burying mafia hit targets?).

**Cute, if limited, as the many incarnations of NY represented here are, let's not pretend these logos are anything more than banner-ad quality. This is not anything I'd associate with a top international ad agency, nor is it a worthy face-lift for such a NY grand dame.**

"I Heart a NY Classic!"

(says this New Yorker in Old Amsterdam)