Keenly observed celebrities
Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum has New Yorkers scratching their heads
Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum puzzles New YorkersBy Thérèse Balduzzi Posters with unusual images of celebrities draw attention in New York to the opening of Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in Times Square. They invite visitors to play a guessing game and at the same time convey something of the experience that awaits visitors to the museum.
Instead of just depicting wax figures of famous people on display at the museum, the advertising shows characteristics of their human exhibits. These could be assigned to different celebrities, however, and so the launch campaign for the museum's opening asks "Richard Nixon or Janis Joplin?" to the image of a hand raised in the Victory sign.
"Mahatma Gandhi or Jerry Springer?" is written above a metal eyeglass frame. "Michael Jackson or Jackie Kennedy?" the ad wants to know to a hand in a white glove. "Albert Einstein or Don King?" is the guessing game for wildly standing up tufts of gray hair, and finally "Judy Garland or Elton John?" for Dorothy's red glitter shoes from the musical "Wizard of Oz".
Under the Madame Tussaud's museums' signet is the exhortation, "Get close. Get the details." ("Get closer so you can see the details, too.")
You don't know celebrities until you see their details
The campaign, designed by DDB Worldwide, New York, arouses the viewers' curiosity and at the same time refers to the surprises that visitors to the wax museum can experience every now and then. "Even if you think you know all the details of the celebrities, when you visit the museum, you usually find out that this is not the case," says creative director Tan Shen Guan, explaining the campaign.
Since ordinary consumers know their celebrities primarily from TV and film appearances or from magazine photos, a closer look at their likenesses usually reveals that they are smaller than they had imagined or possess features they had never noticed before. Finally, the museum also offers the opportunity to study the details as long and as closely as would never be possible in reality, not even in made-up TV reality.
The campaign began in Where magazine and includes posters in subway stations, on billboards and in phone booths, postcards and magazine ads. In addition, small posters were also wildly pasted.
The subway cars of the Times Square Shuttle, which runs back and forth along 42nd Street, were also used as moving billboards, and finally, images were projected onto building walls.
The campaign was launched in October to coincide with the opening of the new branch of Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum on 42nd Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues. Madame Tussaud's also maintains museums in London, Las Vegas and Hong Kong.
Instead of just depicting wax figures of famous people on display at the museum, the advertising shows characteristics of their human exhibits. These could be assigned to different celebrities, however, and so the launch campaign for the museum's opening asks "Richard Nixon or Janis Joplin?" to the image of a hand raised in the Victory sign.
"Mahatma Gandhi or Jerry Springer?" is written above a metal eyeglass frame. "Michael Jackson or Jackie Kennedy?" the ad wants to know to a hand in a white glove. "Albert Einstein or Don King?" is the guessing game for wildly standing up tufts of gray hair, and finally "Judy Garland or Elton John?" for Dorothy's red glitter shoes from the musical "Wizard of Oz".
Under the Madame Tussaud's museums' signet is the exhortation, "Get close. Get the details." ("Get closer so you can see the details, too.")
You don't know celebrities until you see their details
The campaign, designed by DDB Worldwide, New York, arouses the viewers' curiosity and at the same time refers to the surprises that visitors to the wax museum can experience every now and then. "Even if you think you know all the details of the celebrities, when you visit the museum, you usually find out that this is not the case," says creative director Tan Shen Guan, explaining the campaign.
Since ordinary consumers know their celebrities primarily from TV and film appearances or from magazine photos, a closer look at their likenesses usually reveals that they are smaller than they had imagined or possess features they had never noticed before. Finally, the museum also offers the opportunity to study the details as long and as closely as would never be possible in reality, not even in made-up TV reality.
The campaign began in Where magazine and includes posters in subway stations, on billboards and in phone booths, postcards and magazine ads. In addition, small posters were also wildly pasted.
The subway cars of the Times Square Shuttle, which runs back and forth along 42nd Street, were also used as moving billboards, and finally, images were projected onto building walls.
The campaign was launched in October to coincide with the opening of the new branch of Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum on 42nd Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues. Madame Tussaud's also maintains museums in London, Las Vegas and Hong Kong.
