The first spectacle, which we are infiltrated with every single day is advertising. Whether you open a newspaper, drive down a highway or watch TV you're bombarded with ads. During a visit with Deutsch advertising firm, I learned of one ad campaign in particular that seemed to embody spectacle. During an advertising campaign for IKEA, Deutsch decided to create create spectacle in the daily life of the New Yorker. After President Obama was elected in 2008 Deutsch recreated an oval office in Grand Central Station fully equipped with IKEA furniture (image below). Secondly, they rented a limo, stuck a few American flags on the front to imitate the President's vehicle, filled the trunk with IKEA boxes until it overflowed and drove the car around New York. This spurred a lot of attention as to why Obama would by IKEA furniture, and was therefore a rather successful campaign, because it attracted a lot of conversation and attention towards a particular product. Like many ads, the Deutsch advertising campaign was focused on creating spectacle.
Another successful spectacle I was able to participate in with my classmates, was an Improv Everywhere spoof, the No Pants Subway Ride. In this spoof thousands of people rode various subway routes to one central location, and everyone got on the subway wearing pants, and got off the subway without them, exposing their underwear to the world and confusing most everyone who didn't know what was happening. The best part of this spoof, in my opinion, was that we were instructed to tell anyone who asked what was happening that we merely forgot to wear pants. It was a completely normal day, except for the fact that we were pants-less! check it out!
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