Happy 2010! Hope the holidays were a blast! Now it's back to work...or school... or job searching...or to whatever boat you may be floating. (Myself being in the latter... but not for long!)
So now that finals are over and I have successfully graduated, college is a thing of my not-so-distant past. And, of course, it is all I can think about. The classes I most enjoyed and the least, the professors I will never forget and those already forgotten, class trips and family vacations, roommates, friends, ads... I know, I'm a little obsessed- but what can I say? Passion has that affect.
So naturally, as I watched the ball drop in Time Square on the television screen this New Year's Eve 2009, I could think of nothing else. I was observing New York from Florida, watching the land of advertising, opportunity and my future. Nostalgia hit me like a rock through a window- three years ago that very night, I (along with my mother and sister) stood on that very street, staring at that illuminated globe, counting down the new year. Excited, cold, eager, smooshed and dehydrated, my family stood in that locked off section of the street for 10 hours. But we did it- we rode out the night in style and I can now say that I was in Time Square to bring in the new year of 2007.
My most vivid memory of that day, however, wasn't the mass bottles of urine strewn about the street, or the promised confetti that held written wishes that never came (they were all blank), or my first time eating genuine New York pizza- it was of my family's trip to the cleanest bathrooms in Time Square- the Charmin Bathrooms: the interactive campaign by Publicis NY. (See AMBIENT, CHARMIN, CHARMIN: BATHROOMS)
It was a bathroom theme park, equipped with entertainers dancing in Charmin bear suits, music, colorful walls, picture opportunities, televisions and even a stage. And lets not forget the actual stalls that were cleaned right before AND right after every use. Odor free and squeaky-clean, each room offered both Charmin Ultra Soft or Charmin Ultra Strong tissue for testing. Coupon dispensers masked as slot machines dispensed a coupon of your choice on the way out of the exhibit. Publicis NY succeeded in taking a place most individuals hesitate to enter and making it fun and enjoyable.
At this point I was a college freshman, new to advertising and not yet in my major courses, but I knew then that this was what it was all about: taking a brand and making it memorable. And I was as determined then as I am now to take part in the process.
This year the Charmin bathrooms offered a Broadway Musical experience with their "Bathrooms over Broadway" show- "the first-ever broadway show in a bathroom."
The 10-15 minute production stars Charmin, as well as famous Broadway performers. Actor Christopher Sieber, known for his role as Lord Farquaad in "Shrek the Musical," along with Maya Days, Marya Grandy, Bernard Dotson, and Joy Hermalin, "The Go Team" (five Charmin restroom entertainers), and the Charmin Bears completed the cast. They utilized "toilet-paper-fashioned props" as they performed musical numbers to the tune of familiar songs.
For every visitor to the bathrooms, one dollar is donated to select charities with Charmin's "Go for Good" campaign. The charities involved include, Broadway Cares, Boys & Girls Club of America, The Harlem Children's Zone and Angels in Waiting, chosen by "actor and stand-up comedian Mario Cantone, the campaign's spokesperson."
This year the restrooms include, baby changing stations, stroller parking, a digital graffiti wall, a kids' toilet-paper pit, photo-ops with a giant toilet, and a video "can-fessional" booth. There is also a daily blog with lut out. inks to "Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube, where consumers can share their photos and videos" from their experience with the event. They even added a mobile app, "Sit or Squat," that searches for clean public bathrooms.
It's an advertisement, a tourist attraction, a fun house, a rest-stop and a clean bathroom all-in-one. I may not have had my blog back then, but I think my experience with the attraction that year and this Charmin campaign deserves a shout out. Because, why not live a little in the past? The past made us who we are after all.
Till next time,
The New Ad Grad
