The designers, "Public School," cheekily explain their campaign: "NYC is great for so many reasons. Especially the daily bombardment of big brands pushing their advertising on poor unsuspecting souls. To make it worse they try to mask their greedy intentions behind cool guerilla style posters to make it feel that more organic. Well add Public School to that list of invasive unsolicited propaganda. Except ours is too fresh to ignore..."
And now you can get the designy slogan on t-shirts. It's available at Barney's. Everybody wants one.
Public School
Of course, this isn't the first time the slogan has appeared on shirts. Urban Outfitters has been selling their version for awhile. Still, now that it's plastered all over town, it is hard to ignore.
The switch from "I Love New York" to "New York Loves Me." Think about that.
What would it take to wear such a shirt? What depths of self-importance are required to make the statement that you are loved by 8 million people, plus a whole lot of buildings and sidewalks, plus centuries of history, art, and literature, plus music, plus all the dead who ever added to the fabric of the city, plus egg creams, and--well, it goes on, because when you say "I Love NY" that's what you're loving. And when you say "NY Loves Me," you are reversing that love.
And maybe that's been the problem all along.
It's hard not to laugh in complete glee when I think of the love of an egg cream (I love it, it loves me back), but then I need to cry when I am confronted with the idea of more soul-less, self-important, look-at-me, love me, me-me monads walking the streets I love so much and not appreciating the visceral history of NYC.
ReplyDeleteHi Grumbler,
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'm dumb, but I really can't figure it out. What are they trying to say?
All I know is - I really doubt you could have gotten away wearing this kind of slogan, or putting it up, anywhere in NY. You'd have been mocked, mercilessly.
T.
This is an easy trend to kill.
ReplyDeleteEVERY TIME you see someone wearing that shirt, walk up to them nicely, and say "Hey, I'm from New York, I see you are a tourist and enjoying our city, what did you think of Times Square?"
It won't take but a few encounters for the yunnies to never want to wear that shirt again.
Now c'mon Grumbler readers, help me out here... see something, say something!
This is what passes for guerrilla art? A twist to catch your microscopic attention that just dissolves into incoherence. I guess the middle finger hiding in the heart is the Big Statement, but who exactly is getting the bird? "F*ck Urban Outfitters" would be more to the point. This is just gibberish.
ReplyDeleteHow annoying is that comma? And 's' for that matter? The heart is a stinking icon, for God's sake. What rules of grammar apply?
ReplyDeleteBut you are right, I can't even imagine the 'depth of self-importance' and ego it takes to even think of such a shirt.
The thing is abominable and annoying on so many levels.
I don't think NY loves anyone, hence the constant unsatisfied yearning for acceptance, success, fame, fortune, security...
ReplyDeleteIf NY loves anyone, I'd say it's Regis Philbin, lol.
Good job with the misplaced apostrophe after the heart there, too.
ReplyDeleteNew York loves no one. And that's why I love New York.
ReplyDeleteWorse still are the New York Is Mine! themed shirts. I never thought that New York belonged to me, but I certainly belong to New York, all the way down to my bones.
ReplyDelete