To Promote New York, Handlers Take Steps to Reclaim ‘I ♥ NY’

In business, as in romance, familiarity often breeds, if not contempt, then indifference.

Eveline Tollenaar, from the Netherlands, passing a shop selling “I ♥ NY” products near the Empire State Building.

In a new marketing plan, the “I ♥ NY” logo is being reclaimed. Sellers of unofficial items face warnings and possibly penalties.

Consider, for example, the Playboy logo, symbol of a certain kind of male sophistication in the 1950s, yet today, owing to promiscuous licensing, it seems associated mainly with taxicab air fresheners.

Now ponder a far more difficult case: the “I ♥ NY” logo.

Last week, the state tourism board, Empire State Development, announced a retooled marketing campaign centered on the famed slogan and design, this time with an emphasis on gas-sipping day trips and short vacations for residents of the region.

But inherent in the campaign is a drive to reclaim the symbol itself, which, like the Playboy logo, has become devalued, as marketers term it, through overuse.

This year, state officials plan to introduce new tools — like a difficult-to-reproduce hologram — that will assure consumers that a product is officially licensed by New York State.

For those who sell unofficial “I ♥ NY” products, officials plan to warn and then penalize offenders.

Thomas Ranese, 37, chief marketing officer at Empire State Development, admitted, “We haven’t always invested in protecting the brand as much as we should have.”

Trademarks were allowed to expire in the 1990s in the United States and abroad, leading to the widespread perception that the heart symbol was in the public domain and did not require a license, he said. The trademark registrations have been renewed, he said, but the damage had already been done.

New York State has lost millions, if not tens of millions, of dollars in licensing fees since the symbol was introduced in 1977, Mr. Ranese said.

The result, visible all over New York City but especially in Midtown Manhattan, is a vast alternate universe of “I ♥ NY” products, almost all of which are unlicensed fakes.

Is there any way for a public-spirited tourist to detect a fake? “The simple answer is no,” Mr. Ranese said. Even the registered trademark symbol is easily counterfeited, he said.

Still, the products are fun.

In need of something sartorial? There is a “I ♥ NY” men’s tie (with Statue of Liberty) for .99 and a Betty Boop “I ♥ NY” T-shirt for .99. Crave something culinary? There’s a dinner bell for .99, salt and pepper shakers for .99, a beer can holder for .99 and a dinner plate for .99. And a kitchen towel, .99, to clean up.

Need something for the children? There are teddy bears (.99 small, .99 large) and baby clothes for .99. Need authentic New York tchotchkes? There’s a computer mouse pad for .99, a thimble for .99, a glass paperweight for .99.

Feel the need for exercise? There is a baseball for .99, golf balls for .99, and a fur football for .99.

Only one of the above is an officially licensed product. (Answer at the end of the article.)

For the record, Mr. Ranese said, CMG Worldwide Inc. of Indianapolis is the state’s licensing agent and without CMG’s seal, the product is probably a fake.

A seller suspected of hawking fakes will get a cease-and-desist letter from the law firm of Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti, in Albany.

“We have been reviewing anything found by our licensing agent,” Mr. Ranese said. Undesirable products include ashtrays (.99) and cigarette lighters (.99) because the state wants to discourage smoking.

Marshall Blonsky, 70, who teaches semiotics at Parsons the New School for Design, expressed skepticism at the state’s new efforts.

“Oh, boy! That’s very odd!” he exclaimed. “They’re trying to re-proprietize this thing.”

The brand is battered, Mr. Blonsky said. “What was absolutely original and therefore thrilling in 1977,” he said, “is now an empty signifier, nothing in it, no communication, zed, zero. It moved from poetry to banality, from red to pink, like a coin that has been rubbed smooth from so much usage.”

For Milton Glaser, 78, the famed graphic designer who developed the heart symbol, he has few regrets.

Born in the Bronx (or as he put it, near the Allerton Avenue IRT), Mr. Glaser was dismayed at the state of the city in the late 1970s, crime ridden, dispirited, near bankruptcy.

“There was a sense of desperation, despair, and also impotence that follows these kinds of conditions,” Mr. Glaser said. When he was asked to help with the tourist campaign, he was proud to do so. “It seemed an important thing to do as a citizen,” he said.

Mr. Glaser designed “I ♥ NY” without charge, forgoing millions of dollars in fees.

“It is one of those peculiarities of your own life where you don’t know the consequences of your own actions,” Mr. Glaser said. “Who in the world would have thought that this silly little bit of ephemera would become one of the most pervasive images of the 20th century?”

In fact, the only thing Mr. Glaser regrets is that, after the terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001, he designed a “I ♥ NY More Than Ever” logo as a patriotic symbol.

The Pataki administration threatened to (but did not) sue him for trademark infringement. “The stupidity!” Mr. Glaser sputtered. “It saddened me.”

(Answer: The computer mouse pad.)