People walking through Times Square on Saturday, November 25 encountered an interactive installation featuring 1,000 balloon pets contained in crates. People of all ages came by, and it was easy to spot the animal lovers in the crowd as they stopped to talk with staff and volunteers about the unusual occupants in the plaza.
The Times Square campaign was made possible thanks to the agency Moon Rabbit, which designed and executed the plan at no cost to Best Friends. By all accounts, it was a hit, reaching thousands of people.
The balloon pets were just one part of the campaign. A digital billboard also in Times Square played a 30-second video twice an hour for several days before and after the installation to share the same message.
While the event focus was symbolic, raising awareness about the plight of pets in shelters across the country, each crate in Times Square had a photo and story of a real dog or cat currently waiting to be adopted.
The crates holding the balloon pets were actual functioning pet crates that were donated to the Humane Society of Westchester in New Rochelle, New York, following the event. The inflatable dogs and cats are reusable (they can be reinflated multiple times), and each came with information on how to responsibly recycle the material.
Our goal at Best Friends is to support all animal shelters in the U.S. in reaching no-kill by 2025. No-kill means saving every dog and cat in a shelter who can be saved, accounting for community safety and good quality of life for pets.
Ok, the room. Literally where do I even start because I loved this room so freaking much. For starters, all beds are 2 meters x 2 meters because giant beds are amazing and super comfortable. I actually had to drag myself out to dinner and to see a show because I was so comfy.
In the end, I decided I would just put my camera in my bag and hide as well as I could and keep my laptop and iPad in the safe. When you frequently have two people to a room (and twice the stuff) this seemed like a really poorly designed safe that should really be a little bit bigger.
I seriously felt like I was staying in a space ship because each room is fully customizable and everything is controlled via a single iPad (also known as a mood pad). Your lights? Check the mood pad. The mood lighting? Check the mood pad. The TV? The mood pad controls the TV, lets you choose movies and you can even select specific music.
Additional features on the mood pad include setting alarms (which also include wake-up lights that mimic the rising sun) and information about the hotel such as breakfast times, check in and out times, how to work things and (for me) where the safe is.
There are so many things to love about citizenM New York Times Square, but I think one of the main points has to be its amazing lobby. Designed to feel like an oversized living room, it totally succeeds because I easily could have plonked myself there all day long. It has amazing shelves full of enviable books and trinkets and adorable little stools/seats that are shaped like elephants.
Sweet comes in many colors, shapes, and sizes. Our proposal for the TSQ Valentine takes on a shape that is irregular. A heart that looks as if it has grown out of love. Just like love, our heart for times Square looks different from every angle.
How do you express your love? Is it a surprise, a nickname, or a sweet message? Our heart captures the energy of TSQ through a kaleidoscopic reflective surface. As lights within the heart pulse on and odd they reveal impromptu messages for visitors to use in photos. The irregular shape also acts as a register for a custom web-based photo platform that uses technology similar to facial recognition to reveal different hidden messages as you move you mobile camera around the heart.
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