Metro NY’s Patrick Arden’s consistent coverage of what’s going on in our City’s Parks is always spot on. In today’s Metro, he covers the NYC Parks Department – via the Central Park Conservancy – allowing a “traveling advertisement for the Chanel handbag” in the middle of Central Park this fall.
Yes, you read that correctly.
Arden writes, “For 150 years, Central Park has been a green refuge in the commercial city. But when a spaceship-like art exhibit lands on 1.5 acres this fall, New Yorkers may wonder whether a commercial enterprise has claimed their oasis.”
So what’s the cost to place a 7,500 square foot ad in Central Park? Well … “Chanel will reportedly pay the Central Park Conservancy at least a million dollars for a three-week stay, and the city will collect another $400,000.”
(And the Tisch’s paid a paltry $2.5 million to get their name – arguably – forever on the Washington Square Park Fountain?)
When Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe was asked by the New York Times whether he “anticipated criticism for allowing Chanel to advertise one of its products in the park … Benepe countered, ‘Everything has a sponsor.'”
Well at least everything under Parks Commissioner Benepe and Mayor Bloomberg.
At the end of the article, Metro provides some suggestions on other ways the Parks Department can maximize parkland for profit:
1. Brooklyn Bridge: McDonald’s can paint the arches golden.
2. Ellis Island: Presented by your local immigration attorney.
3. Washington Square: Sell it to NYU (oops, that’s happened).
* Read Metro’s full story here.
* New York Times “slide show” of the future “exhibit” which is equal parts art/spaceship/Chanel handbag ad.
Photo: Metro Photo Composite
If Doomberg could, he literally would sell the Brooklyn Bridge.