New York New York, fondly known as The Big Apple since the 1970s following a promotional campaign by the New York Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, has rebranded. Gone are the allusions of juicy cosmopolitan razzmatazz, gone are allusions of grandeur, gone are the sky-scraping daredevils and high-rise high fliers.

Classic New York

NY is differentiating itself (again), to move on from the contrasting cities of The Big Peach, The Big Easy and The Little Apple (Atlanta, New Orleans and Manhattan respectively) – and it’s gone hippy.

Places can be brands too. Stuttgart plays to its history of horses and uses a horse in its city logo (incidentally, Porsche, based in Stuttgart, is the only car company worldwide to mention its city of origin on the badge). Germany played strongly to its “Land of Ideas” image during the 2006 World Cup (although I think most people on the underground will remember the scantily clad images of Claudia Schiffer).

But what will people remember this NY NY campaign for? Er, post-hippy scribblings?

I have yet to find a blog or website saying anything positive about this “relaunch”. Oops.