CR Blog
Your ad on Victory Arch
Posted by Mark Sinclair, 29 October 2009, 13:24 Permalink Comments (17)
If you're based in London and journey home via Waterloo, you might notice the station's Victory Arch start to collapse around 5.30pm, thanks to an ultra-realistic digital projection. Perhaps more worrying though, is that this famous memorial to the station's staff killed in the first world war, is now a licensed ad site...
Projection Advertising and Titan Outdoor are unveiling AdTrace, their new "3D mapping projection technology"; essentially a digital projection that can be tailored to the exact features of the station façade. AdTrace apparently allows the mapping of complex buildings so that a projection can be matched to the contours of the structure without distorting the image.
The press release claims that this, naturally, "makes it possible to project onto virtually any building, opening endless opportunities for advertisers and building owners." Fair enough – and by the look of the other work on Projection Advertising's site, for the Watchmen film for example – they do it well.
But technical innovations aside, the claim itself sounds like a fairly frightening prospect. (Remember when a static Gail Porter was beamed onto the House of Parliament for FHM years ago? Well now imagine her writhing around Big Ben itself. OK, bad example).
Joking aside however, the press release states that Waterloo's James Robb Scott-designed, Grade II listed façade is now, apparently, "available for commercial bookings from the beginning of November". Titan Outdoor already have the exclusive contract for ad sites at the 16 other stations owned by Network Rail.
Tonight's digital spectacle of Waterloo "collapsing" is one thing (even if not wholly appropriate for a war memorial) but what happens once big brands get to project what they want onto the structure, using the same technology?
Network Rail clearly has other priorities. After the Victory Arch is reduced to rubble tonight, we wonder who will be the first brand to add their message to one of the capital's grandest war memorials?
You can watch a preview of the Waterloo station projection, here.
17 Comments
Projecting adverts onto a recognised war memorial? Would that be tolerated anywhere else? I doubt it.
2009-10-29 15:07:25
Nice idea - wrong place to use it?!
2009-10-29 15:12:21
disgraceful
2009-10-29 15:25:25
Let's just slap a Nike swoosh on the Poppies next year and be done with it.
2009-10-29 15:28:16
Might have to head on down. Not too sure about the advertising aspect.
I've seen this sort of stuff quite recently actually : http://www.vimeo.com/7146136 Would love to see how someone like Universal Everything might take this further.
2009-10-29 15:36:28
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIT6PGWzGHo 2:40 onwards, from 3:40 you'll be grinning like a loon. another creative novelty from clever people fallen to advertising. ah well.
2009-10-29 15:54:01
The guys in AntiVJ have done similar projections to this - http://www.antivj.com/
2009-10-29 16:03:34
Er... actually just saw it and it was pretty special. Good powerful projectors and nice animations, all with out distortion.
Isn't the whole of the UK a war memorial or grade listed in some way?? And as for advertising, shall we just pull down all the billboards? Of course it not good or right, but thats the way of the world...
2009-10-29 17:52:18
:::insert long string of heartfelt invective here:::
2009-10-30 12:28:19
Its absolutely awesome, much more interesting and powerful than a billboard! Way to go!!
2009-10-30 21:07:50
"isn't the whole of the UK a war memorial or grade listed in some way??"...
In answer to this question, er.. No it isn't.
All well and good for the technology, but this isn't appropriate, especially when poppy season and remembering the fallen is back. Not on, Network Rail.
A
2009-10-31 13:52:51
It saves on paper.
2009-11-01 02:19:45
I know what I think ... and it's probably quite polite compared the thoughts of those who have family remembered here.
Is it possible that Network Rail can be shamed into passing the proceeds to service charities?
2009-11-02 15:56:38
What a disgraceful use of a public monument. Seriously this is horrific.
2009-11-03 12:01:38
I don't mind it as a novelty but if the price is right I can definitely envisage this taking off to the point where instead of seeing the buildings in a city, all you have is a flickering mass of adverts - probably the same annoying one repeated over and over and over again.
2009-11-04 01:00:08
On the company website reel there is a Royal Force ad fully projected on the Antony Gormley's Angel of the North wings. Not bad for an object that was supposed to be "a focus of hope [...] for the people abandoned in the gap between the industrial and the information ages".
2009-11-06 22:55:06
Have you seen the whole thing - it's awesome!
http://tinyurl.com/ybgww5y
2009-12-10 09:59:56
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