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Iconic Marilyn Monroe 'skirt' scene re-created in the NYC Subway

Perhaps Monroe's most iconic image, her skirt blowing in the updraft from subway trains blowing up through a sidewalk grating, has been re-created on digital signage, this time down in the subway system and reacting in real-time to incoming subway trains.

May 29, 2015 by Christopher Hall — w, t

Marilyn Monroe and the New York City Subway meet again.

Perhaps Monroe's most iconic image, the one of her skirt blowing in the updraft from subway trains blowing up through a sidewalk grating, has been re-created on digital signage, this time down in the subway system and reacting in real-time to incoming subway trains.

The digital out-of-home campaign uses audio-reactive technology to recreate the skirt-blowing scene each time a train pulls into or departs from the station. It's there on MTA kiosks promoting the Lifetime miniseries "The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe" starring Kelli Garner that begins May 30:

According to Lifetime, the reactive ads bring to the U.S. for the first time technology used to create an ad last year in Sweden that featured a model's hair blowing in the wind from incoming trains:

According to AdWeek, the ads went up in the Grand Central, Union Square, West 4th Street, 86th Street, 14th Street/7th Avenue, Brooklyn Bridge, Fulton Center and 68th Street-Hunter College stations. Lifetime partnered with Horizon Media, Control Group and New Tradition for the campaign.

Lifetime Vice President of Consumer Marketing Tracy Lenhart told AdWeek that the screens are programmed to trigger the creative content when sound in the station exceeds a pre-set decibel level, one that would likely only be caused by a subway train.

"The core of the idea is a fundamental shift in our media strategy," Lenhart told AdWeek. "Lifetime is increasingly looking at the utilization of new OOH technologies to bring our creative and campaigns more to life. We were looking for a new, never-done-before [in the U.S.] placement that will shout 'premium and popular,' and make people stop and take notice and extend their excitement about the campaign onto social media."

Digital Signage Today spoke to Paul Fleuranges, the senior director of corporate and internal communications for the city's Metropolitan Transportation Authority, about the campaign. He said time will tell if more brands or advertisers will try to use the same or similar technologies in future promotional efforts.

"I think it will really depend on the brand, and of course the message," he said. "Clearly for Lifetime this was something they believed people would recognize from 'The Seven Year Itch' (the movie in which the original of the famous scene took place). Hopefully brands and agencies see this ad and are looking to create something just as innovative."

The campaign illustrates a "very interesting use of technology," that further expands the use case possibilities from an advertiser's view of the MTA's On The Go Travel Station platform, Fleuranges said.  

"I think people look at it as something new and cool in the subway," he said of commuter reaction to the ads. "Remember, unless you are in advertising or digital signage and know of the Swedish hair product ad you really haven't seen the use of this type of technology before."

And of course it's only fitting that the ads — a callback to another famous incident with Marilyn Monroe involving New York subway trains — were run in the New York City subway system, he said: "I think it's a brilliant use of a truly 'Marilyn Moment' that could have only happened in New York, and near the NYC Subway."

Screencap image taken from YouTube/Lifetime.

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