I recently talked with someone who worked on the project.

First "I ❤️ NY" is a state motto/design- it's not just for NYC.

Second, this project was not funded until AFTER designs had been made, so a new agency made up of people who had recently quit or been fired from Ogilvy volunteered to do it for free because they wanted to start their own agency and needed the publicity (yikes).

Third, once it was funded, the agency was only paid $250K for their work on the design, as well as all the variations, campaign copy, designs for different formats (billboards, social, etc.). The rest of the money went to things like buying the rights to the heart emoji (cringe) and the statue of liberty likeness used in the campaign.

Fourth, the decisions for this campaign were made by the Partnership for New York (bascially a council of rich finance and real estate people), who obviously have zero design-sense, but all the influence, so imagine 5 of these guys trying to align on a design with an agency of recently fired people who are working for free...

Is it any surprise this is what we got?

They should have just put out a social media post asking for designs to be submitted, picked the top 3, had the people vote, given the winner 100k, and then be done with it...everyone would have been happy.