To promote their summer programming, the Andy Warhol Museum looked to advertising agency MARC USA to create a series of print ads. The $200,000 ad campaign features imagery that is meant to intrigue and slightly disturb the viewer, preparing them for what's to come in the several exhibitions scheduled for the season.
Following the theme "Summer's Different Here," the ads resemble postcards and depict perverted summer scenes: a woman gagged with a beach ball, barbed wire flip flops, and a worm-filled hot dog, to name a few. The words "Must be summer at the Warhol" appear on each, completing the twisted theme and welcoming visitors to be disturbed.
We aren't sure the ads do much more than shock and confuse, though museum director Eric Shiner says that they have only received one negative phone call about them since the campaign went live on June 14 in Pittsburgh. Creative director of MARC USA, Josh Blasingame says that the theme of the ads is about "challenging yourself," just as the Warhol Museum challenges convention. The only people "challenged" by these ads are the models in them.
[via CreativeReview/NYTimes]
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