In the news lately is the recent launch of NYC’s new campaign, “This is New York City,” which is being used to highlight the many different facets of the Big Apple. It marks the official burial of of “I Love New York,” a campaign that is going on its 30th year.

The campaign, developed by BBH, give me a little bit of satisfaction. As many of you may know, Jaymus developed the This is Atlanta campaign for Brand Atlanta in Spring of 2007. The campaign did extremely well with focus groups and showed much promise. However, because of political reasons, Brand Atlanta chose Lattimer Moffitt’s “City Lights, Southern Nights.”

I was somewhat shocked at the similarities when I first saw the New York campaign. You can see some examples here. Not that I think the idea was swiped, which it certainly wasn’t. But it shows that the Brand Atlanta campaign “This is Atlanta” was on the right track. It gives me pains to think of what could’ve been for Brand Atlanta, a world-class campaign that rivals the country’s best.

Better luck next time, I suppose.