Branding in New York Is Just the Beginning

[Fabb]

April 6, 2003

Branding in New York Is Just the Beginning

By N. R. KLEINFIELD

Once you wrap your mind around it, the possibilities just keep coming. For instance, line up a sponsor for each of the city schools. P.S. Lipton Chicken Noodle. I.S. Krispy Kreme. The Abercrombie & Fitch High School of Science.

Granted, Times Square already possesses an estimable name, but couldn't everyone get used to Heinz Square?

And who says we've got to keep calling Brooklyn Brooklyn? Think about it. If Anheuser-Busch agrees to come up with the big money, would it be so terrible to rename the borough Budweiser?

These tentative ruminations were inescapable after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on Wednesday appointed New York's first chief marketing officer, a young man named Joseph M. Perello. His job, monumental in scope, will be to offer the city and its contents and inimitable mystique as a brand available for corporate purchase. In other words, the city, needing ready cash, will go about selling its outsized cachet roughly the way the N.B.A. sells the N.B.A. or Nascar sells Nascar. This potentially means a flurry of city trademarks, city-blessed products, corporate names engraved on New York infrastructure. At last, somebody really might be able to buy the Brooklyn Bridge.

The mayor, in delineating the appointment, was insistent that the city would approach this in a tasteful, albeit remunerative, manner. He specifically ruled out erecting a Coca-Cola sign above City Hall. He indicated that he was not eager to rename the city's landmarks. No need to worry about walking the dog in J. P. Morgan Chase Central Park. But an Alpo Dog Run near the Metamucil Boat Basin could make the cut.

At this formative stage, there's really no telling where this concept will lead. Meanwhile, New York is rampant with marketing whizzes, creative brains that churn out 30 ideas a second. They ought to know fruitful ways to sell the place.

What about the New York Seal of Approval? That's the contribution of Richard Kirshenbaum, the co-chairman of Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners. "What I would do is create an official New York Seal of Approval," he said. "Like the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval, it would be an actual seal that would play to New York's strengths and also the strengths of the product. Everyone knows that if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere."

Appropriate products that can make it here could receive endorsements from city agencies. "So the strongest Hefty garbage bag will get the seal from the New York Sanitation Department," Mr. Kirshenbaum said. "And the S.U.V. that locks its doors quickest or that can go over the deepest potholes gets the seal of approval from the Transportation Department."

Naturally, there would have to be a rigorous review panel that would test the products to certify that they are worthy of the New York seal, Mr. Kirshenbaum said. If New York gives its blessing to a lightweight iron, the thing better do some job on wrinkles. Mr. Kirshenbaum thinks the seal would attract enormous interest. "You could have the official deodorant of New York, that works even in the subway," he said. "It would be great if there was an official New York condom."

Patrick O'Neill, group creative director at TBWA/Chiat/Day, hashed out some ideas with his team. They liked the notion of subbranding the city by its neighborhoods, so perfumes could be named after SoHo and Flatbush and East New York, not to mention the boroughs themselves. He could already smell Staten Island Seabreeze. He imagined neighborhood-branded candies. There could be a new M & M's product with each color named for a New York neighborhood.

He thought the city should collect money for product placement at prominent events. Beverage companies — Evian, Bud Light — could bid for what drink Mayor Bloomberg would sip during news conferences.

He proposed a city credit card that earns its bearer points toward free theater tickets or meals when used at city establishments. (It could be used, too, to pay parking tickets, worth bonus points). Also a series of short books known as the "Hurry Up and Wait Reading Series," including a title for the subway, one for waiting in lines, another for sitting in a car while working the alternate side of the street parking shuffle. And a New York CD that has D.J.'s mix ambient sounds of the city: the last-call bar brawl, a five-alarm fire, the randy couple next door, a car alarm.

No real reason to bring up the mayor's peevish attitude toward smoking, but when you need money, you need money. Keith Reinhard, the chairman of DDB Worldwide, offered that when the city builds its next sports stadium, it ought to name it Philip Morris Field or the Marlboro Dome. "Charge smokers for seats," he said, "even when there's no game. Smoking would not only be allowed, it would be encouraged."

Justin Rohrlich, a freelance copy writer, had enough ideas to keep the new marketing officer content for months. Recognizing that the mayor is ticklish about renaming Central Park or City Hall, Mr. Rohrlich suggested that he introduce the concept subtly. "Begin by renaming Gracie Mansion `Macy Mansion' and mumble it when speaking," he wrote in an e-mail message. "No mentions to be made in any print media for at least six months."

He recommended that the city should not limit itself to renaming places. "Bloomberg should let sponsors rename administration officials as well for the right price," he wrote. "Imagine Tylenol Scoppetta running the Fire Department." He pointed out the obvious, that having Bloomberg L.P. sponsor Mayor Bloomberg "would result in an extremely smooth transition process."

Other ideas from Mr. Rohrlich: require royalties to be paid on all shout-outs to any of the five boroughs of the city in rap lyrics: "This would include, but would not be limited to: Run-DMC's references to Hollis, Queens; Nas's use of `Queensbridge Houses,' which would become the intellectual property of the New York City Housing Authority; and Jay-Z's constant mentions of Brooklyn and the Marcy Projects."

And why stop at the living? Bill the dead. He urged the new marketing chief to chase down the descendants of people whose names already grace city infrastructure and who have, in Mr. Rohrlich's words, "been taking the city for a free publicity ride for years." He suggested the F.D.R. Drive, George Washington Bridge and Madison Avenue as good places to start: "Demand retroactive fees for all those years they've had stuff named after them for free. If they don't like it, tough. Rename it."

The Police Department is famous, so milk it. As he pointed out, "There are 76 police precincts in New York City. That's 76 opportunities to earn money." He suggested having the 19th Precinct, covering the Silk Stocking District, sponsored by Hanes, and the First Precinct, in TriBeCa, sponsored by Robert De Niro, "like everything else in the neighborhood."

On and on flowed his notions: mow corporate logos into the Great Lawn and Sheep Meadow. Sell diplomats' parking spots to collection agencies. Have the hidden cameras to catch drivers running red lights be sponsored by Kodak, "who could offer the accused, along with the ticket, a selection of different-size prints and blow-ups of their car going through the intersection." Co-brand the key to the city with Medeco.

"Look at all the potential being squandered by limiting toll booths strictly to toll collection," he wrote. "Jack in the Box has never effectively cracked the Northeast. Why not partner with them and add a drive-through food element to all tollbooths. Jack in the Box enters a new market, the city taps a new profit center and drivers are fed. Everybody wins."

Paul Cappelli, the president of the Ad Store, took some time out with his team, while on a shoot in Los Angeles, to work on some concepts. He saw value in selling the city's intersections. "Most companies market themselves where such and such meets such and such," he said. "Like `where fashion meets hip-hop.' " So why not sell where 42nd Street meets Broadway? Sell the actual pavement at intersections for advertising.

He felt it made sense to market the rights to the Walk/Don't Walk illuminated crosswalk signs. Instead of flashing "Walk" when it was time to walk, they could simply flash "Nike."
"We could sell New York humor to Canada Dry," he said. "Now here's one good for all New Yorkers. Get someone to fix the New York subway sound system and then they can sponsor it. Bose. Pioneer. Sony. Whoever can do it."

He had a few renamings he felt good about: Bic Penn Station; eBay Ridge, Brooklyn; Circuit City Hall; Eveready Battery Park. "Bring back the Polo Grounds," he said. "but call it the Ralph Lauren Polo Grounds." On the product front, he mentioned free-range alligator meat and companion gator products from the New York City sewer system. And he saw a nice fit in licensing the yellow of city cabs to Sherwin-Williams as an important new color.

Nobody ought to be left out of the opportunity to hand the city money. For smaller businesses, he proposed allowing them to adopt a city pothole. "It would be great for dentists," he said. "You know, this pothole was filled by Dr. Rosenberg."


Copyright 2003*The New York Times Company

[ZippyTheChimp]

Make sure the signs are removable. Enron Field is now Minute Maid Field.

What if Georgia-Pacific sponsors a certain Bronx arena?
The Dixie Yankee Stadium?

A few years ago on April 1, a neighborhood paper ran a story that Duracell was going to help finance the Battery Park renovation, and it would be renamed Duracell Battery Park.
New park benches would be called recharging stations.
The paper was flooded with letters and emails.

[Fabb]

Duracell Battery Park.

Good one !

[Fabb]

New York City will begin selling a commodity it doesn’t own: its good name

By Gersh Kuntzman
NEWSWEEK INTERNATIONAL

May 5 issue — New York City was founded on cash. While other cities arose where settlers happened to end up—or where some king decided to start a kingdom—New York came about in 1626 because a Dutch guy named Peter Minuit gave $24 worth of beads, axes, jew’s-harps, hoes, awls and cloth to the local Lenape Indians. In exchange he got Manhattan.

THE MYTHIC DEAL has long figured in New Yorkers’ swaggering self-confidence. We got this place for a mere $24! Now it’s worth trillions! But I’ve always had a different interpretation. It wasn’t the Dutch who got the great deal; it was the Lenape. Native Americans didn’t “own” land, strictly speaking. As they saw it, the deal allowed them to walk off with valuable trinkets—yet surrender nothing. It was the New World’s first big con.

* * * * The ghost of the Lenape haunted city hall the other day, when Mayor Mike Bloomberg became the first mayor to accept my interpretation of New York’s founding myth. Strapped for cash, he let it be known that, henceforth, the city would begin selling a commodity it doesn’t own: its good name.

* * * * Officially, Bloomberg was announcing the hiring of the city’s first-ever chief marketing officer. His job? To “aggressively market all of our competitive advantages and centralize them into a comprehensive value proposition to corporate sponsors and build a consistent brand.”

* * * * Understand? Don’t worry, nobody else did. Apparently, the mayor hopes to “sell” corporations the right to affiliate themselves with a New York City landmark. In other words, a famous soft-drink manufacturer could put up $10 million to plant trees. In return, the city would install a plaque that reads WELCOME TO THE TROPICANA GROVE. Actually, New York has been doing this for years. Some time ago, for instance, the Central Park Children’s Zoo was officially renamed the Tisch Children’s Zoo, after the rich guy who funded its renovation. More recently came the phenomenon of patronymic subdivision. An example is a two-foot-long walkway in the zoo called the Robert Wood Johnson Children’s Bridge. C’mon, the guy was a pharmaceuticals bazillionaire! He needs a miniature bridge, too?

* * * * With New York heading into its worst fiscal crisis ever, Bloomberg clearly needs money. His latest “doomsday” budget cuts thousands of police officers, closes firehouses, reduces trash pickups and shuts senior centers, zoos and public pools. That means the mayor’s new marketing whiz, like Iraq’s former Information minister, will no doubt be forced into even more outlandish sales pitches:

* * * * Zoo animals wandering through the city because no one is minding their cages? That’s not a crisis, he will announce. It’s Safari-land New York!

* * * * No after-school programs? Those aren’t packs of kids marauding all over the city, it’s the first-ever citywide game of capture the flag!

* * * *More homeless on the streets? No, they’re not homeless; they’re merely taking advantage of New York’s wealth of beautiful campgrounds!

* * * * Bigger classes in public schools? No problem. Remember, “it takes a village to raise a child.”

* * * * No new textbooks? Who needs new textbooks? After all, Francis Fukuyama said we have reached the end of history.

* * * * No more express bus service? Call it “The Manhattan Diet”!
* * * * No summer pools? Another innovative tourism strategy! Let the kids open the fire hydrants and flood the streets. Welcome to Venice on the Hudson!

* * * * The Lenape would be proud.
* * * *
* * * *© 2003 Newsweek, Inc.

[dbhstockton]

Not just Times Square, but also Herald Square were both named after private corporations a long time ago.

As a New Jerseyean, I would hate to see this plague spread to NYC. *We have to live with the "Continental Airlines Arena" and "PNC Bank Arts Center," and I do not wish it upon anyone else. *Surely New York is big enough to rise above this terrible trend of the 1990's.

Actually I don't mind, as long as it has a ring to it. * I'd prefer the names of donors to the names of soulless corporations -- it sounds better and has a long tradition to it.

It also should be emphasized that Bloomberg has a broader idea. *Just like now you can buy the official basketball of the NBA, or whatever, you will soon be able to buy the official mousepad, or whatever, of the City of New York. *Merchandizing, baby! *It's a goldmine!

[Lightning Homer]

Let'em purchase the name of the streets. I don't mind to nickname the 5th Avenue "Duff Avenue" (buuuurp) !

The city could make a lot of $$$$ this way and it wouldn't hurt, IMO.

But rename schools, bridges or parcs, I think it's crazy. It will lower the value of the city, just because people would hate to live like that.

The loss would be as big as the income.

If you want you factory's name on something, just build it !

Who built that wonderful Chrysler Building, afterall ?

[TLOZ Link5]

The Ambercrombie & Fitch High School of Science?

Oh, God help us all...

[Kris]

September 10, 2003

New York Picks Its Beverage, for $166 Million

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

For the right price, the Big Apple is happy to be called the Big Snapple.

Under a five-year $166 million deal announced yesterday, Snapple, the beverage company that claims its drinks are made from the best stuff on earth, and New York City, which claims to be the capital of the world, are uniting to promote each other. Snapple is now an official beverage of the city.

Most immediately, the venture will give Snapple exclusive rights to place vending machines in the city's 1,200 public schools. And starting on Jan. 1, the deal will extend to other city properties, including office buildings, police stations and even sanitation depots.

In return, Snapple will guarantee to pay the schools at least $8 million a year for five years. Under other parts of the deal, Snapple is expected to pay the city about $13 million a year, based on sales. And it will spend $12 million a year on advertising that also promotes the city.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg described the arrangement as unprecedented for a city of New York's size. The deal is the first to be brokered since he hired a chief marketing officer for the city in April.

The mayor has long insisted that New York City is not just an important megalopolis but a powerful brand name with strong revenue potential. And Joseph M. Perello, the chief marketing officer, said the Snapple deal was just the beginning.

"Snapple will become the official iced tea and water," Mr. Perello said, leaving open the possibility that one day the city would have an official cola, or flavored tonic. "This is the start of a select number of really high-quality partnerships."

Whether a partnership with a beverage company will actually encourage tourism and promote economic development or simply expand Snapple's market share among the municipal work force is anyone's guess.

As part of the deal, Snapple is developing four new 100 percent juice drinks — Green Apple, Orange Mango, Grape and Fruit Punch — to comply with the city's recent ban of soda, candy and other sugary snacks from school vending machines. Even though Snapple plans to sell 100 percent juice drinks, that does not necessarily mean slimmer waistlines for schoolchildren. Like soft drinks, many fruit juices provide calories from sugar and not much else. And while fruit contains at least some fiber, it is usually lost when the fruit is turned into juice.

"I think most nutritionists would say that if you have to drink something that comes in a can, Snapple is probably as good as you can get and they are also vending water," Mr. Bloomberg said. "You have to have something healthy, but you also have to have something that kids want to drink."

To be the Education Department's exclusive vendor, Snapple will pay the city a 30-cent commission on each $1 can of juice or water sold in schools. (Iced tea will not be sold in the schools.) In addition, the company will pay $3 per case sold to support school athletics, for a total of at least $3 million a year. Some of the money will go directly to schools, many of which rely on vending machines to support athletic teams and other programs.

When the ban on sweets was imposed last spring, some principals said the financial loss would be crippling. The mayor said that each school would get at least as much money as it did last year in vending revenues.

Mr. Bloomberg announced the deal on the athletic field at John F. Kennedy High School in the Bronx, with a bright-orange Snapple vending machine and the high school's football team standing behind him.

"It is my pleasure today to announce the first official corporate-marketing partnership the city has established," he said. "Given the global popularity of Snapple products, this will present the city with countless new opportunities to make positive impressions on people around the world."

Outside the schools, Snapple will sell bottled water, iced tea and Yoo-hoo chocolate drink. Vending machines in other city buildings selling non-Snapple products will eventually be replaced, but contractual obligations may limit how quickly that changeover can take place. Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff said that a primary goal was to help Snapple boost business. "The corporate partner has to recognize benefits in terms of its ability to grow sales," he said, "and we certainly hope that for Snapple that's the way this will work." Mr. Doctoroff and other officials described the deal as generous on Snapple's part, and said that the company, now a division of Cadbury Schweppes, had a special loyalty to the city because it was founded in Brooklyn.

Jack Belsito, the president of the Snapple Beverage Group, echoed this. "New York City loves Snapple," he said. "Snapple loves New York City, its pretty much as simple as that."

Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein said the deal would help the school system maintain nutritional standards. "We are going to make sure that the fat and sugar content is diminished," he said. "And there's no purpose to try to do that if we don't have a beverage program that's consistent."

Mr. Perello said that the Education Department had met with several beverage companies before selecting Snapple. A bidding process was not required, he said.

Some beverage companies, including Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, have faced criticism for marketing aggressively to schools and for their efforts to lock school districts into exclusive contracts. In response to growing opposition in schools to sugary soft drinks, Coke recently introduced a milk-based beverage called Swerve, specifically aimed at school-age children.

Designating an official beverage is a growing trend among cities. San Diego, for example, is paid more than $1.5 million a year to sell only Pepsi products on city grounds. A similar deal between Oakland and Coca-Cola has so far proved disappointing, with the city making far less than expected. New York State's official beverage is milk but is not tied to any particular brand.

Yesterday, Mr. Bloomberg dismissed a question about whether it was appropriate to promote the Snapple brand in schools.

"We already have vending machines in every school," he said. "They have other brand names on them. So that's a bridge that has long ago been crossed and I don't think in this day and age we can take the vending machines or should out of the schools."


Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

[Kris]

September 17, 2003

The Snapple Deal: How Sweet It Is

By MARIAN BURROS


SCHOOL SUPPLIES This can holds about 10 teaspoons of sugar.

THEY banished soda from school vending machines, calling it nothing but empty calories and tooth-rotting sugar. They brought in Snapple with the promise of healthier, all-juice drinks for students — and $8 million a year to city school coffers.

Problem is, the new drinks have even more calories and sugar, and are marginally better than soda only because Snapple has added vitamins and trace amounts of other nutrients.

An 11.5-ounce container of the new Snapple has 160 or 170 calories and the equivalent of about 10 teaspoons of sugar, 40 or 41 grams. A 12-ounce Coca-Cola has 140 calories and 39 grams of sugar.

As part of a five-year $166 million deal that made Snapple New York City's official beverage, the company won the right to sell these new all-juice blends, called Snapple 100% Juiced!, and bottled water in public school vending machines. The blends — Green Apple, Orange Mango, Grape and Fruit Punch — were created to meet rules that ban soda, candy and other sugary snacks from being sold in the schools.

Most people think of juice as wholesome, healthy, and certainly harmless, and some juices — particularly orange and grapefruit — have a fair number of vitamins and nutrients. But other than the three vitamins and one mineral that have been added to Snapple juice blends, critics say there is little nutritional difference between them and non-caffeinated sodas.

The main ingredients in the drinks, besides water, are concentrates of apple, grape or pear, according to label information provided by Snapple. These are three of the least nutritious fruits and the least expensive concentrates.

Nutritionists have long cautioned that children should not drink more than 4 to 12 ounces of juice a day, depending on their age, because it has a lot of sugar and calories without the fiber found in whole fruit and, with the exception of orange and grapefruit juice, not much else.

"The new Snapple drinks are a little better than vitamin-fortified sugar water because the juices may provide low levels of some additional nutrients," said Dr. Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nutrition advocacy group that frequently criticizes the food industry.

Dr. Jacobson said the juice drinks may have some phytonutrients, antioxidants that may protect against cancer, "but it's not like giving the kids conventional orange juice or grapefruit juice."

"The fact is, they are vitamin fortified and they don't have caffeine, but they are still pretty much the same as a 12-ounce Coke," he said.

Twelve ounces of pure orange juice has about nine teaspoons of sugar and about 160 calories but contains 100 percent of adult daily requirements for vitamin C, 10 percent of folic acid and 2 percent of calcium and other nutrients.

The Snapple drinks are fortified with 10 percent of the requirement of vitamin A, 100 percent of vitamin C, 20 percent vitamin D and 10 percent calcium. Smita Patel, vice president for research and development at Snapple, says she disagrees with the criticism. "The fortification makes the juices nutrient-dense," she said.

Steve Jarmon, Snapple's vice president for partner marketing and community ventures, said the company has done what the city's departments of education and health asked them to do. "We are providing kids with two healthy alternatives," Mr. Jarmon said, "so if the parents don't feel like this 100 percent juice product is right for their child they can give their kids water."

Marty Oestreicher, chief executive of school support services in the city's Education Department, said the drinks are much better than what had been available.

"We had nutritionists who served on our team who put the standards together, and they said 100 percent fruit juice drinks were a major improvement over what is available today, and they feel they're appropriate," Mr. Oestreicher said. "Anything less than 100 percent fruit juice or anything with artificial flavoring or artificial coloring or artificial sweeteners was not acceptable."

Fern Estrow, a registered dietitian and nutrition educator in New York City, said the city schools should be offering low-fat milk and apples in the vending machines instead of these juices.

Mr. Oestreicher said he is not sure whether milk will be available in the machines.

Ms. Estrow is also concerned that exposure to the Snapple logo will persuade students to drink the company's other beverages, most of which are about 10 percent juice and have no added vitamins. "Kids don't know the difference," she said. "Snapple carries a huge product line of basically sugar water."

Mr. Oestreicher disagrees. "We believe our students will be able to distinguish between Snapple drinks once they leave the school," he said.

Dr. Toni Liquori, an associate professor at Columbia Teachers College and director of nutrition services at the Community Food Resource Center, which promotes access to nutritious foods, said she doesn't know why children are being asked to pay for water.

"If anything, we should have cold water in our schools," Dr. Liquori said. "Water is a right; New York City is supposed to have the best water and we're asking them to pay $1 for it?"


Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

[Kris]

September 24, 2003

PUBLIC LIVES

He Loves New York. That's Why He's Selling It.

By ROBIN FINN

ANYBODY thirsty? In Joseph M. Perello's office suite, there's Snapple by the caseload. After all, drinking the stuff is tantamount to a civic duty now that Snapple is paying for the privilege of being the official un-cola of New York City.

The way Mr. Perello, the city's first chief marketing officer, sizes things up from his generic new office at 1 Liberty Plaza, all of New York City is a brand. A brand deserving of deep-pocketed sponsors. A hot commodity that, according to one survey of the universe's most desirable brand names, clocks in at an enviable, infinitely marketable 13th out of 2,300. Imagine the possibilities; he sure has — everything from the official footgear of the Police Department to the official undergarments of the Fire Department.

Think big and blush boyishly: That's the M.O. of Mr. Perello, 35, a gregarious, immaculately groomed go-getter with prior sales coups like one million N.F.L.-affinity credit card accounts at MBNA America and the doubling of Yankees sponsorship revenues. All delivered with a perpetual smile; not even working in a skyscraper next to ground zero gets him down. "Exactly the opposite!" he says. "It fires me up." That and the caffeine in his diet Snapple iced tea.

With a target of $50 million in annual revenue from 10 to 12 corporate sponsors — one deal done, a second pending — he predicts he'll be ahead of schedule by the end of 2004. Piece of cake! Reminds him of the time at Delta Tau Delta when, trading on his University of Delaware fraternity's obnoxious reputation, he cooked up a vat of chocolate pudding, poured it into pie shells and charged passers-by $5 for the privilege of slamming pies into frat-boy faces. He raked in $500 for charity in less than three hours; he fondly recalls it as his first lesson in capitalizing on a brand.

Now he is in a $150,000-a-year government job with an unprecedented mission: solicit corporate sponsors for city agencies and city functions, and develop proprietary city trademarks.

"Certainly New York City is a brand, and it's a damn good one!" proclaims Mr. Perello, whose every utterance is accompanied by a flurry of arm-waving and the flash of his gold signet ring — the Perello family crest from Naples, Italy. "You know that joke: `How do you get an Italian guy to shut up? Get him to sit on his hands.' Well, that's me," he says, sitting on them. Briefly.

But back to his favorite brand, the one he idolized growing up in the suburbs just west of the city in Belleville, N.J. "We're not in the business of changing the brand — the city's arguably perfect," he says. "What we're doing is reinventing the way a corporation views a municipality. We're trying to capture, and quantify, the emotions this city inspires.

"That's what your goal is if you're a brand: Become more emotional, because emotional attachment demands a premium price." Uh-huh; must be why those monthly car payments move us to tears.

That's Mr. Perello's pet theory: the brand as an emotional property. He sold Mitch Modell of Modell's Sporting Goods on it, and Mr. Modell was so floored that he recommended Mr. Perello to Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff for the city marketing post (without telling Mr. Perello). This spring Mr. Perello closed down Perello & Company, the marketing and consulting firm he ran after a muddled foray into UltraStar, David Bowie's online fan sites, and hopped aboard the city brand-wagon.

AND now, a word about that first corporate sponsor, Snapple, which will ante up $166 million — at the very least, interjects Mr. Perello — over the next five years as the city's official water, juice and iced tea, and sole supplier of vending machine beverages to its schools.

"It's a no-brainer!" he says. "It solves a nutritional problem and brings cash to the city. Who can argue with that?" Some have, but Mr. Perello, who lives on the Upper West Side with his wife and son and devotes his spare time to renovating a multifamily house he owns in New Jersey, expected some naysaying.

Which brings us to these words on his wall: What does not kill me makes me stronger. What's with that?

"Just a quote," says Mr. Perello, forgetting to give copyright credit to Nietzsche. But why? Is his dream job a hard job? "Because this is New York City. It's a tough place. But if you live by that mantra, you can almost deal with anything. Like the media. Like George Steinbrenner." (Mr. Perello, the Yankees' vice president for business development from 1997 to 2000, was twice fired and rehired — de rigueur for Yankees personnel.)

"I know we're going to be under the microscope in this office," he says. "It's like, when I worked for George Steinbrenner, I could walk into his office with a suitcase full of a million dollars, and he'd complain if it was in twenties and not hundreds. He's never satisfied with anything. In that situation, all you can do is what's right. And I think he made me a better business person."

So, Circuit City Hall? Too tacky, he says. Corporations should not mistake this for a naming opportunity. Tastefulness, a word Mr. Perello, no longer roly-poly after a year on the Atkins diet, uses with a certain degree of wistful double entendre, is a sponsorship must. "No advertiser is going to influence policy. But commercialism has driven this city for 400 years. It's why we are who we are."

And why we are what we drink. Got a civic-minded cola? Mr. Perello's glass is empty.


Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

[Gulcrapek]

My school just received two Snapple machines. They replaced the old ones.

[Schadenfrau]

Boycott, Gulcrapek. The branding in this city has gotten out of control.

[billyblancoNYC]

Branding like this is fine... it's money the city can get for basically doing nothing. Circuit City Hall is a no-no.

[Schadenfrau]

I have to disagree, Billy. Kids in public schools are pretty much a captive audience. What the city does is not "basically nothing", instead it provides a generation of present and future consumers.

[billyblancoNYC]

True, but what's the alternative... have a variety of drink types? Coke, Pepsi, SoBe, Snapple. The effect on the kids will be about the same. I'm pretty sure if the kids only get Snapple at school, that will not cause them to be snapple-like drones, craving nothing but the stuff at home, on the street, etc.

Kids need to have something to drink, it's easy to maintain one provider, plus the city get's millions of dollars in the deal.

To each his own, but I don't see an issue. Now, Snapple City University of New York is a different story.