Brisbane City Council's costly environmental campaign goes off the rails ...

Last Monday, 4350water blog referred to a story in the Courier Mail on the Brisbane City Council's decision to waste money by asking US pop star Justin Timberlake to front a $670,000 marketing blitz to promote its climate change campaign.

See - Brisbane City Council - flushing $s down the drain.

The campaign was to also use an 'I love Bne' slogan in green with a heart symbol, quite similar to New York's trademarked 'I love NY' slogan.

Seems New York officials were not amused.

4350water blog can confirm that New York representatives have been scouring the internet looking for references to 'i love bne green heart'.

Excerpt from Sunday Mail:

Brisbane's broken hearted

21 October 2007

A marketing campaign for a $119 million Brisbane climate-change initiative is in freefall, with New York officials threatening legal action against the Brisbane City Council for ripping off its world famous "I heart NY" trademark.

The centre of Brisbane's campaign was a green heart logo that was to be plastered on city council buses and trucks and printed on giveaway T-shirts and caps.

But when shown the proposed "I heart BNE" logo by The Sunday Mail, officials from New York's Empire State Development Corporation yesterday used the city's famous catchphrase – "fugeddaboutit".

They have asked their lawyers to investigate whether the copyright of their trademark logo had been violated.

"In this case we very strongly believe it is, but we obviously need to have legal representation give us the right counsel," said Thomas Ranese, the chief marketing officer for New York's Empire State Development Corporation.

"If I had to speak to Brisbane directly, I would say: 'I would certainly encourage you to express your love and pride for Brisbane but in a way that doesn't dilute New York's ability to drive tourism for New York State'."

Last night, Lord Mayor Campbell Newman said civic cabinet had not signed off on the idea and he denied that the council planned to launch the campaign at the CitySmart Neighbourhood Fair at Rocks Riverside Park, Seventeen Mile Rocks, next Sunday.

But The Sunday Mail has viewed a detailed month-by-month video presentation of the campaign, and sources say the Lord Mayor's office has already ordered 115 green-heart logo T-shirts.

An internal council memo says the campaign, if approved, would cost $670,000. Cr Newman said he believed the campaign pitch, prepared by global marketing group Universal McCann, had cost about $10,000.

The Lord Mayor said he had raised issues of copyright and trademark when he first saw the campaign.

"I said at the time this is a great concept but a lot of work needs to be done, a lot of hurdles need to be jumped through," he told The Sunday Mail.

But he admitted there was no alternative plan in the works.

"We need a campaign and if there is an issue and we can't do what is proposed, we will have to do something else."

New York's logo, drawn in 1977 by graphic designer Milton Glaser, was trademarked in the 1980s and is said to help attract up to 140 million visitors each year.

New York State lawyers have filed more than 3000 objections to what they have alleged are trademark infringements of the logo.

Mr Ranese said if American lawyers found a defendable copyright breach, the next step would be a cease-and-desist letter sent to Brisbane City Council.
...

See - Brisbane's broken-hearted.

So change the slogan so it is sufficiently different so as not to attract the ire of New York's copyright lawyers.

'Love you Brisbane' perhaps.

Although Channel 7 may have something to say about it.

And why pay Universal McCann $10,000 when they allegedly proposed a campaign that would put Brisbane City Council in breach of copyright ...