Engaging Museum and Art Gallery Commercials
In advertising communication campaigns, museums and art galleries, can play prominent roles as public touch-points, in out-of-home promotional activations for enlightening experiences of discovery.
1. Royal Ontario Museum, Immortal
Advertising Agency: Broken Heart Love Affair, Toronto, Canada
Production Company: Scouts Honour, Toronto, Canada
Post Production and VFX Studio: Motif, Montreal, Canada
Canadas, Royal Ontario Museum short-film epic, ‘Immortal’, directed by filmmaker extraordinaire, Mark Zibert, is a non-linear journey of pivotal moments in the course of human history.
The dream-like imagery, interspersed with scenes of an unborn child, metaphorically floating through centuries of time, are atmospheric and compelling, in the awakening consciousness, of the museum’s extensive collection of artefacts, containing the story, and immortal heritage of mankind.
2. Macma Argentina, The Art of Self-Examination
Advertising Agency: DAVID, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Production Company: POSTER, Buenos Aires, Argentina
The DAVID Agency and Macma Argentina, conceived an innovative activation, staged at Isaac Fernández Blanco, the Hispanic American Museum of Art, in Buenos Aires.
The ingeniously produced, “The Art of Self-Examination” interactive activation, was inspired by studies done Dr. Liliana Sosa, who in her research, detected evidence of breast cancer, in the subjects of Rembrandt’s Bathsheba Holding King David’s Letter; The Three Graces by Rubens; and Raphael’s The Portrait of a Young Woman.
A promotional commercial, directed by filmmaker Dana Campanello, reveals how full-scale copies were made of the three masterpieces, with the exhibited bare breasts moulded in 3D, to create realistic lumps, skin retractions, and swollen lymph nodes, that gallery viewers were invited to touch, to get a sense of what to feel for, when performing self-examinations.
MACMA’s ‘Art of Self-Examination’ featuring the art-world’s universally acclaimed nude masterpieces, that have been in the public domain for 500 years, will without a doubt, in my view, be an advertising communication industry, award-winner, of many accolade accruals.
3. V&A Museum, Creativity Is What Makes Us Human
Advertising Agency: adam&eveDDB, London, UK
Production Company: Park Pictures, London, UK
Directed by filmmaker Georgia Hudson, the short-film ‘Creativity Is What Makes Us Human’, is the focus of an integrated campaign, inviting the public to explore the V&A’s permanent collection treasure trove, of creative human endeavour through the ages.
The Museum’s exhibitions, and promotional events, are brought to expressive life, by dancers Tania Dimbelolo, Pierre Bardot, Emma Belabed, Iona McGuire, and lead choreographer and dancer, Max Cookward, to a soundtrack composed, by singer, songwriter, and music producer, FredWave, from Wood Green, North London.
4. TAC Australia, Meet Graham
Advertising Agency: Clemenger BBDO, Sydney Australia
To spearhead an integrated, and interactive, road safety communication campaign, BBDO and the Australian Transport Accident Commission (TAC), engaged artist and sculptor, Patricia Piccinini, trauma surgeon Dr. Christian Kenfield, and Monash University Accident Research Centre’s, crash investigation expert, Dr. David Logan, to create a lifelike figure, to be exhibited at public galleries and museums, of what a human, designed to survive a car crash, would look like.
The outcome of their diligent collaboration, unveiled for the first time, in the State Library of Victoria’s picture gallery, was a profoundly impactful ‘Meet Graham’ installation, of an extraterrestrial looking figure, with human and life-qualities, designed to survive Australia’s roads.
The experiential initiatIve, highlighting the vulnerability of a human body, had a wide impact on social median debates, news coverage by numerous TV channels, the trade press, and the advertising industry.
And Clemenger BBDO, Australia, moreover, accrued numerous, top international awards, that included the NY Festivals World’s Best Advertising accolade, to be added to their tally, as the world’s most awarded, Advertising Agency of The Year, in 2017.
5. Coca-Cola & WWF, Arctic Home Public Activation
Augmented Reality Company: INDE, Los Angeles, California, USA
Advertising Services and PR Agency: Lexis, London, UK
Coca-Cola and WWF’s global ‘Arctic Home’ campaign, initiated many ‘out-of-home’ advertising innovations, one of which, was an event staged in London’s Science Museum in 2013, using augmented reality in an immersive experience for the general public.
The scale and scope of the activation is remarkably impressive, and enthralled museum visitors of all ages with emotional delight.
6. The Art Institute Of Chicago and Airbnb, Van Gogh’s Bedroom
Advertising Agency: Leo Burnett, Chicago, USA
The collaboration of Leo Burnett, Airbnb, and the Art Institute of Chicago, that won a Cannes Creative Effectiveness Grand Prix several years ago, remains an amazing creative enterprise for me to this day.
Lovers of post-impressionist paintings could book a unique night’s stay at the Art Institute, in a life-size reconstruction of Van Gogh’s bedroom. Using Van Gogh’s three paintings of his bedroom in Arles as references, the room was built with painstaking attention to every detail.
Cannes Festival jury president Jonathan Mildenhall at the time said; “Creative effectiveness is about impact, and this idea created a positive impact on the brand’s audience and public engagement, the brand’s business, and the creative community through its creative excellence”.