Spitzer Wants His Stamp on "I ♥ New York"

Governor Eliot Spitzer is cleaning house in Albany every which way. The latest thing to get the Steamroller Spruce Up? The state's I Love NY tourism campaign. Spitzer announced that advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi would work on the campaign - and that the "I Love NY" logo would not change.

Spitzer wasted no time in blaming former Governor Pataki for "under-managing" the brand.

From the Daily News:"I don't want to be critical of anybody, but I'm not going to be in the ads," Spitzer said in announcing that the Manhattan firm of Saatchi & Saatchi has been chosen to handle the multimillion-dollar marketing program for the next three years.

"They will air at times that do not correlate to campaigns and Election Day," he added.

From the TImes-Union: Spitzer said the state has failed to market itself effectively in the past, referring to the years when the program featured Gov. George Pataki as the tourism spokesman.

”I’m not going to be in the ads; elected officials aren’t going to be in the ads,” he said. Instead, a “professional'’ approach will be used.

And according to Saatachi's CEO Mary Baglivo, "We’re going to connect with people through stories, through symbols, through the beautiful images that are inherent to the state and music, which are really universal human touch points.” Hmm, we guess there will be no mention of the Power Line. And we'll assume that Saatchi & Saatchi here in NYC isn't going to use dead celebrities photographs without permission in the ads, the way its London counterpart did for Doc Martens.