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Tiffany Hanssen: It's a busy first day of spring. In the WNYC newsroom today, there was an unveiling of a new NYC logo, a new take on the iconic I ❤ NY logo. WNYC news reporter Liz Kim is covering the story and wrote a piece for Gothamist, and she's here to give us a little context about what's going on. Hi, Liz.

Elizabeth Kim: Hi, Tiffany.

Tiffany Hanssen: All Right. It's a We ❤️ NYC. It's not I ❤ NY, the difference. We're talking about something for the city, which is why Mayor Adams is involved in this, right?

Elizabeth Kim: Correct.

Tiffany Hanssen: All right. What does he have to say about it?

Elizabeth Kim: Like you pointed out, it's a riff on an old classic, but instead of using the word 'I', it's importantly switching that up with the word 'we'. We're finding ourselves in this moment where there is a lot of pessimism about the city's future. I think we've heard the countless conversations about how the pandemic has irrevocably changed New York City.

This ad campaign is coming at a moment where the city feels it really needs to get New Yorkers not just proud of their city, but also get them civically engaged. Mayor Adams, this morning, he kicked this off on CNBC during an interview, and he said whether it's volunteering with a homeless outreach group or volunteering in a park, he wants New Yorkers to get involved in helping create a better, fairer recovery.

Tiffany Hanssen: You heard what he said on CNBC?

Elizabeth Kim: Correct?

Tiffany Hanssen: What was his case for a new logo? The new logo is supposed to translate to, "We're all feeling great about New York City, now." Is that essentially it?

Elizabeth Kim: He didn't speak to the reason. I guess that was the question that was spurred immediately after they unveiled the logo, because obviously everybody remembers the old logo, which is, I ❤ NY. I immediately called up Kathy Wylde, she's the president of the partnership for New York City, and she's one of the people who is spearheading this new ad campaign.

What she told me was, "Listen, that iconic advertising campaign, that was created in the '70s, it was meant to spur tourism." We're at a different moment. We're not exactly talking to tourists per se. We're talking to the residents of this city and what they can do to help New York City. That's the reason for the modified ad campaign.

Tiffany Hanssen: To my ears, that sounds a little bit like splitting hairs, but I'm wondering what the reaction was online that you've seen.

Elizabeth Kim: The earlier reviews were not great. As you can-- [crosstalk]

Tiffany Hanssen: I should say, we can see this now up in your piece here on Gothamist. Folks who are wondering what it looks like, it's over on gothamist.com, is that right?

Elizabeth Kim: Correct.

Tiffany Hanssen: All right.

Elizabeth Kim: The story is up and as you might expect, people in this city have strong opinions and there are also very strong opinions when it comes to style, design, and font. Font just [laughs]-

Tiffany Hanssen: We're just [crosstalk] .

Elizabeth Kim: -gets people really riled up.

Tiffany Hanssen: We're going to get people talking about fonts. All right.

Elizabeth Kim: On Twitter, a New York Times journalist put up the new logo and she just asked a simple question, "What do you think of the font and the design?" Sure enough, the rants just poured in. My favorite one is, "The original looks like the voice of a city." That's the one referring to the '70s classic. "The new one looks like the voice of an investment bank or possibly a healthcare provider."

Tiffany Hanssen: Interesting that the person said it looks like the voice of a city, because originally when Milton Glaser did it in the '70s, it was for the entire state. It was to gin up tourism for the entire state. Really, what I hear you saying is, Mayor Adams, is saying, "You know what, we're just going to riff on this specifically for our city."

Elizabeth Kim: That's absolutely right.

Tiffany Hanssen: All right. Folks are not happy with the design. Was there anything else? I'm imagining questions, "Is now the time to be doing this? Is now the time to be spending money on this?" Did any of that come up?

Elizabeth Kim: No, I think everybody agrees that we're at a moment right now where the city needs something. There's so much uncertainty about where we're going as a city, and not just this city, but just cities in general. The shift to remote working has made many people start to question the importance and the way we design our downtowns. I don't think it's about that. I think it's mostly about this symbol. If you're going to riff on an old classic, it's going to be polarizing and people are going to have opinions.

Tiffany Hanssen: Of course. This also begs the question, and I know there's an answer to it, why not just use the old font?

Elizabeth Kim: I put that question to Kathy Wylde, and her answer was, that we needed something of this moment. We're in a very particular moment. Also, that was a slogan that was used mostly for tourism. This one, she wanted one, they wanted one that was directed at New York City residents. That's the reason for the adaptation.

Tiffany Hanssen: Right. I've got to believe there's probably-- I'm guessing there's copyright issues or something with the font and the whole logo.

Elizabeth Kim: Actually no, they could have borrowed it from the state. The state owns the trademark. What's interesting to note though, is-- [crosstalk]

Tiffany Hanssen: That is interesting.

Elizabeth Kim: After 9/11, Milton Glazer came up with a new slogan that was also a take on his old one, which was just "I ❤ NYC more than ever," which I thought was-- That was like, with the old typeface and everything.

Tiffany Hanssen: Right. That was of the moment, I suppose.

Elizabeth Kim: Yes.

Tiffany Hanssen: Right. They're arguing we're in another moment now.

Elizabeth Kim: Yes, but I think you can argue, too. When I told Kathy Wylde that there's been some criticism on Twitter, she wasn't unhappy. She's glad that people are talking about it. You could make the argument that-- This is part of the conversation now and now people are talking about this new ad campaign.

Tiffany Hanssen: Right. I should say again, we're talking about this new 'We ❤️ NYC' logo that has set off a little firestorm of internet curiosity, let's call it, about font and timing and all of that. You can see it right now. Liz has a story up over at gothamist.com, if you're curious what the logo looks like and you haven't seen it. Later this week, I'm just going to shove this in here.

We'll be talking a little bit further and opening up phones to listeners. Listeners, fret not, you can have your chance at this later in the week when we talk about the original logo and a new Milton Glaser book called Milton Glaser: POP that's coming up. Hold your comments for later in the week. The ad campaign is really just an unveiling of this logo? There's additional things that are being brought out in the actual ad campaign? Are we talking print ad? We're talking television ad campaigns? All of it?

Elizabeth Kim: I don't know specific details, but they're definitely doing a really big social media push. When they unveiled it in-- I think they unveiled it in Times Square and you could see like they were putting it out on large LCD screens. You're going to see this everywhere. I was told that this will be across the five boroughs. I was curious whether there would be a song because I think everybody remembers the-- [crosstalk]

Tiffany Hanssen: I'm not singing it, but you can sing it. [laughs]

Elizabeth Kim: I did check the Instagram site. There is some audio that accompanies it. It's not exactly a song, but hey, there's still time, right?

Tiffany Hanssen: Right. Adams is a mayor who likes pomp and circumstance, who likes flash.

Elizabeth Kim: Right.

Tiffany Hanssen: Does this just a reflection of that, I guess?

Elizabeth Kim: I guess you could say that. I think from the beginning, he's tried to exude-- He's tried to be the cheerleader for New York City's comeback. That was a quality that you saw coming out of him from day one. I think this is part and parcel of that. I don't think that this is unusual. I think another mayor with a different personality-- I think this came together not just from the Mayor's office, but from a broader community that involves the nonprofit world, the business world.

This was an idea that I think it-- Kathryn Wylde told me that this was about a year in the making and it came as a result of her group doing a lot of surveys in which the respondents, they were pessimistic about the city's future. They put their heads together and thought, "What can we do to change this?"

Tiffany Hanssen: All right. Mayor Adams is going to be downstairs from us here in the green space coming up at two o'clock here. It's an event. He's talking about housing. Just really quickly, housing on the minds of a lot of New Yorkers. Housing prices, housing availability, issues with NYCHA housing we just talked about over the weekend with some potential redevelopment or redesign. Tearing down of some NYCHA housing in Chelsea. There's a lot to talk about when we talk about housing in New York City. and I would assume all of it is going to be on the table for him. Is there one thing you think he's going to try to zero in on, maybe reflecting on his optimistic view of where the city is headed?

Elizabeth Kim: Well, he has pitched one idea that needs buy-in from Albany, which is about changing our downtowns. If we do, in fact, have workers who are going to work from home, is there a way that we can remake all of these older office buildings and repurpose them for housing? That's been an idea that he has been talking about for some time. He would need to change some state laws to get it done, but that is one big idea to look for out of this event today.

Tiffany Hanssen: Probably taking, as would be par for the course for him, an optimistic take on things, I would assume.

Elizabeth Kim: Right. That the city can adapt, and that's what cities do.

Tiffany Hanssen: Yes. Liz, thanks so much for all of your perspective and your reporting on this. Again, if you want to see the 'We ❤️ New York' logo, and read Liz's reporting about it, it's over at gothamist.com. Liz Kim covers People in Power here at WNYC. Is that right?

Elizabeth Kim: That's correct.

Tiffany Hanssen: I've got it right. Thanks, Liz.

Elizabeth Kim: Thank you, Tiffany.

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