San Francisco Searches For ‘I ♥ NY’-Style Salvation With New Brand Identity

Image via It All Starts Here

San Francisco has found itself a hotbed of one of the highest costs of living and most severe housing crises in the United States. Skyrocketing rent and prices have led to widespread gentrification, pushing out longtime residents and creating a stark wealth gap, while many locals grapple with putting even a tented roof over their heads. Drug use and property crime are also growingly synonymous with the city.

Still, the city wants outsiders to remember that its postcard version—painted with scenes of undefeated tech innovation, an art and culture core, mixed ethnicities, and the Golden Gate Bridge—exists.

It All Starts Here, SF emphasizes in a new US$4 million brand campaign aimed at reviving the metropolis’ honor. Its backers are some of the city’s wealthy players, like tech billionaires Chris Larsen and Bob Fisher, along with Advance SF, a new organization comprising the city’s most prominent employers. For some, the idea of the rich rewriting the narrative of a wealth gap might be a little on the nose.

Image via It All Starts Here

Created by home-grown advertising great Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and debuted at Oracle Park, where the San Francisco Giants found their footing, the campaign establishes San Francisco as the home of Big Tech companies like Google, Facebook, Apple, ChatGPT and DALL-E inventor OpenAI, as well as Levi’s jeans, television, electric cars, and Pixar Animation Studios.

Image via It All Starts Here

“There’s a certain inexplicable magic that happens way out here in this cauldron by the bay… where grit and guts meet brain power, optimism, and openness,” actor Peter Coyote narrates in the refresh’s video. 

San Francisco suffers a similar conundrum as New York did back in the 1970s. And while its tech sector is ever-booming and prosperous, it’s created an inequality where tech millionaires and billionaires live side by side with homeless individuals who can’t cope with rising living costs.

The Big Apple restored some of its image following a simple but significant brand overhaul by graphic designer Milton Glaser. Today, the all-too-familiar ‘I ♥ NY’ logo can still be seen on T-shirts, mugs, and folders sold not just in New York, but worldwide.

Image via It All Starts Here

Could San Francisco enjoy the same kind of success with a similar formula? While branding can play a role in reshaping a city’ image, it’s just one part of a broader strategy that also involves addressing the real challenges facing the community.

Whether It All Starts Here becomes as iconic as I ♥ NY will depend on how it resonates across the board—be it with residents, visitors, and investors—and if it ultimately contributes to positive changes in the city’s fortunes over time.

[via Fast Company, New York Times, More About Advertising, images via It All Starts Here]