CoJo could have discovered his marketing campaign mojo — within the depths of a lethal pandemic.
Metropolis Council Speaker Corey Johnson is dry-running a 2021 mayoral marketing campaign slogan — “We Are One New York” — in scores of TV appearances, social media posts and official messaging, Council insiders and political specialists say.
“It’s clearly a marketing campaign slogan,” longtime Democratic political marketing consultant Hank Sheinkopf instructed The Publish. “It’s a type of New York nationalism and one thing that’s required proper now.”
A Council staffer stated, “I’ve heard lots of rumblings about it … It type of grew to become evident that they had been most likely testing it out as a slogan. I’ve had 5 or 6 conversations with individuals who work within the Metropolis Council about it.”
Johnson’s use of the phrase has exploded lately.
In a minimum of seven totally different COVID-19 period cable-news appearances, Johnson has reminded viewers “We’re one New York.” In lots of instances, he raises his index finger in a “one” gesture. On social media, Johnson has included the hashtag #OneNewYork in dozens of posts throughout Twitter, Instagram and Fb in current weeks. A number of movies of CoJo from the NYCCouncil YouTube web page embody “One New York” within the caption.
“We’re one New York. We have now to come back collectively. We have now to assist one another. We have now to get by way of this collectively,” he implored to MSNBC host Chris Hayes in late March in a clip that was typical of his different statements.
Johnson’s employees can be seeding the slogan throughout their social media feeds, together with chief of employees Erik Bottcher, Neighborhood Liaison Howard Pollack, and particular assistant Keith Edwards.
Since becoming a member of the Metropolis Council in 2014, the 38-year-old Johnson has had a meteoric rise, changing into the chamber’s prime lawmaker in 2018. He’s made no effort to cover ambitions for the mayor’s workplace in 2021, raking in lots of of hundreds of {dollars} in marketing campaign donations for the nascent effort.
He has additionally jabbed at Gracie Mansion’s present occupant Invoice de Blasio, telling The Publish Hizzoner moved too slowly on enacting shelter-in-place orders, and criticizing Blaz’s response to a blackout in July.
And whereas it may simply be a pandemic slogan, the mayor’s race has been on Johnson’s thoughts since a minimum of 2018, when he jokingly proposed to New York Journal the doable catchphrase “Cease F–king With Us.”
In the identical piece, he took subject with de Blasio’s personal “story of two cities” electioneering theme. “It’s probably not about specializing in one group of individuals. It’s about specializing in insurance policies that might assist everybody,” he stated.
“The Speaker isn’t targeted on politics in any respect proper now,” a spokesman for Johnson instructed The Publish.