Entries tagged with “advertising” from Patell and Waterman's History of New York

Bowery Boogie reports that the six-story DKNY mural that has dominated the corner of Broadway and Houston since 1992 is, as of yesterday, history:



I somehow missed that fact when I pedaled home after work at the end of the day.

Here, for archival purposes, is what had been there for almost two decades:



(Photo from Flaming Pablum's "Vanishing Downtown" pages)

Arriving close on the heels of Donna Karan's corporate founding in 1989, the mural must have been viewed by survivors of SoHo's transformation in the 80s as the coup de grâce of the fashion industry's takeover of an art neighborhood. (Anyone have documentation of the neighborhood's original reaction? I'm curious.) It's not the sort of landmark typically mourned by those who mourn the lost city. And yet, almost twenty years ain't a bad run, especially in this neighborhood, and I'm sure it will be missed by many.

As the Times reported a few years ago, the mural took on new meanings after 9/11, due to the prominence of the World Trade Center peeking through the sign's oversized letters:

No thought was given at Donna Karan International [after 9/11] to changing the DKNY mural that has overlooked Broadway and Houston Street since 1989 [sic]. Hand-painted from a Peter Arnell photograph taken out of a seaplane window, it shows a panorama of Manhattan Island as seen through four cutout letters. The World Trade Center, framed by a soft cloud bank, is unmistakable in the upper crook of the N.

"The critical thing is that you don't change history," said Mr. Arnell, the founder and chief executive of the Arnell Group, the advertising agency responsible for the DKNY campaign. "You don't see it differently. You understand it differently."

Racked reports on the design for what will come next: it's more than a little annoying that New York's unofficial colors -- black and white (what better typifies New York fashion, high and low?) -- are being replaced by a boring, if wholesome, California beige, the "NY" of Donna Karan's corporate logo replaced by Hollister's (and parent company A&F's) geocultural orientation: California.

Blech.

Also: DKNY's Facebook memorial to the mural!

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

 
Taken this morning on the south side of 23rd Street in Manhattan, just east of Broadway.

This Juicy Couture ad campaign has seemed tasteless from the start (that, I suppose, is part of the point), but in the wake of the global financial meltdown, it's become egregiously so.

Be sure to check out mannahattamamma's wicked take on the Juicy Couture phenomenon.

If you're wondering about the ad underneath Juicy's offering, you can find the answer here.