I amsterdam: the giant letters that branded a city — unveiled in 2004, removed in 2018

In 2004 Amsterdam launched a new city-marketing campaign built around the slogan 'I amsterdam'. Its best-known expression was a set of giant red-and-white letters more than two metres high and 23 metres wide placed in front of the Rijksmuseum at Museumplein and at Schiphol airport, which quickly became one of the city's most photographed objects.

Brand a city with words people can stand inside: oversized letters made 'I amsterdam' a shared, photographic symbol — until the city decided it meant the wrong thing.

The letters worked because people were allowed to climb, lean on and pose among them, making the brand something visitors and residents performed rather than just read. The slogan also became the name of the city's marketing organisation, its website and its city card, and smaller versions travelled around the city while the main set stayed at Museumplein.

The installation became a landmark: the 'I amsterdam' hashtag was used on Instagram 1.3 million times, and the letters became one of the Dutch capital's most famous tourist attractions in their own right. But as visitors grew to about 21 million in 2017 against a population of roughly 850,000, the same letters came to symbolise overcrowding and 'Disneyfication' for many residents and politicians.

The 'I amsterdam' campaign launched in 2004, when the city wanted a new approach to city marketing. Its most famous expression was a set of giant red-and-white letters, more than two metres high and 23 metres wide, placed in front of the Rijksmuseum at Museumplein and at Schiphol airport, which tourists adopted as a photo object.

The letters became one of the most photographed landmarks in Amsterdam: people climbed into the word and posed inside it, and the slogan also became the name of the city's marketing organisation, website and city card. The 'I amsterdam' hashtag was used on Instagram 1.3 million times.

Success turned into strain as tourism grew to roughly 21 million visitors in 2017 in a city of about 850,000. Politicians and residents began to see the letters as a symbol of mass tourism and individualism, and the city debated measures against the 'Disneyfication' of the Dutch capital.

In November 2018 a majority of the council backed a GreenLeft motion to remove the Museumplein letters, arguing they stood for the opposite of the city's values of diversity, tolerance and solidarity. The letters came down in December while versions at Schiphol remained; the marketing board said it would find them a new, suitable home.

The letters turned a slogan into a place people could occupy: climbing inside the word made tourists and residents co-authors of the brand rather than its audience.

A single physical object carried the whole city brand — the letters were photographed more than the museum behind them, for better and worse.

The removal was itself a creative decision: the city judged that its own icon's meaning had flipped from civic pride to mass-tourism symbol.

Keeping the slogan while removing the letters separated a durable idea from a worn-out object, so the brand survived the loss of its most famous artifact.

A place-brand icon can outgrow its owners: the letters worked because people posed inside them, and that popular ownership eventually made the slogan impossible to keep controlling.

In November 2018 a majority of Amsterdam's city council backed a motion by the GreenLeft party to remove the Museumplein letters, which it said represented individualism and mass tourism; the set came down the following month while the Schiphol letters stayed. The city's marketing board kept 'I amsterdam' as its motto and brand and said it would find a new, suitable home for the sign, while councillors defended the move as a turn toward diversity, tolerance and solidarity.