US x UK///ART & COMMERCE///BODIES & BLOODBATHS…

October 1, 2007 | art, Cool Shit, Hype 2.0, London, News, Street Art

"London Ink's" sleeping giant in London's Victoria Station...

Showtime's bloodbath in Houston for "Dexter's" season premier...

With all the massive ad campaigns, urban billboard forests, ubiquitous building wraps, and endless publicity stunts that inundate our senses on a daily basis, it's pretty hard for advertising to impress us here at Supertouch, but two very distinct international campaigns did just that this month. Hyping the forthcoming Discovery Channel reality show, "London Ink," UK-based creative agency Mother masterminded the placement of two giant, Ron Mueck-style sculptures in very public places in an incredibly effective shock and awe campaign that got word-0f-mouth spreading like wildfire. Located in the Victoria Station Tube concourse, a giant sleeping woman with her head in a photo booth awed subway goers while an enormous Speedo-clad figure "Swimming" through the grass alongside the Thames on London's South Bank looked like a legal Banksy installation. Tattoo graphics created by the show's star, tattoo artist Louis Molloy, were the only visual cue as to the sculptures' overarching motives. Meanwhile, across the pond, Showtime shifted the hype machine into overdrive to drum up viewership for tonite's season premiere of "Dexter" by installing fountains of blood in major urban centers across the US that gobsmacked fans and incensed others. Running red in Times Square, Hollywood, Philadelphia, Washington, Boston, Miami, Houston, Denver, Las Vegas, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis and Phoenix this week, Showtime insisted that its fountainsÃ¢â‚¬â€attended by street teams decked out in white lab coats and cordoned off by "Dexter"-emblazoned yellow crime scene tapeÃ¢â‚¬â€symbolized the network's red logo and not blood when it received protests from disgusted viewers. Word has it Showtime's next stunt will be to make the streets of the cities run red with the blood of the nonbelievers. HAVE A LOOK:

TATTOO YOU:

"Bloody 'ell, Banksy's sold out, eh?"...