Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Target New Years Eve in Times Square


Times Square 07 027
Originally uploaded by Rachel Dubler.
These days, it seems that everything is sponsored by someone. When baseball fields and arenas started to take on corporate identities in the 90s, it seemed really odd to me. It shouldn’t be so out of place in our capitalist culture, but something about it feels odd or lopsided.

Now, events and celebrations are named for their sponsor. This year, the Kentucky Derby was brought to you by Yum! Brands (hmmmm, KFC anyone?), and most recently, NYC’s New Year’s Eve celebration was dubbed “Target New Year’s Eve in Times Square.” The new year was unseasonably warm, but for the millions who watched the revelers in Times Square, all we saw was a sea of red. There were 3 times as much confetti as usual, with what they called “wordfetti” with different words of “inspiration” coming down every hour prior to the countdown.

Their objective was for the consumers to connect with the brand in a completely engaging way, using celebration to create excitement. This isn’t the first time that Target has used alt-media to engage consumers – last year, they were the sole advertiser of the New Yorker magazine for an issue – commissioning artists to fuse the ideas of New York and Target.

Is this our future? Well, think of it this way – the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has always been that way, so the more things change, the more they stay the same.