Things go bigger with Coke
Coca-Cola Poland Services could soon find its name in the Guinness Book of World Records for erecting the largest-ever "billboard" advertisement in the center of Warsaw.
But putting up the 2,395 square-meter, vinyl-net advert which contains an image of a striking red-faced model juxtaposed with a bottle of Coke was no easy task, with high winds causing mayhem and city officials disapproving of such a huge ad on the Universal building, located on the corner of ulica Marszalkowska and Aleje Jerozolimskie.
Coca-Cola's Marcin Barcz said Hator, an advertising company that rents space in the Universal building and specializes in creating large-scale ads, was in charge of garnering permission to put up the banner.
Barcz said that he didn't understand people's complaints that an advert of this size would spoil the center of the city. He said there were numerous examples of similar adverts in cities like London where they had simply become part of the landscape.
"It's also beating the Guinness record that can be a tourist attraction," Barcz said. "We don't want to cover any of the historical buildings either, so I don't quite understand the problem here."
The semi-transparent ad covers the entire Western side of the Universal building, but because it's actually a net, people inside the building can still through to the outside.
The design of the advertisement is a part of a campaign by Publicis, the agency that works with Coca-Cola in Poland.
Although Coca-Cola may be happy with where its ad is placed, city officials aren't. "The problem is that Hator didn't have permission to put the billboard on the building," said Marta Wieczorkowska, an officer in the press department at the Srodmiescie district office. "What is happening now is lawless."
The department of architecture and city planning in Gmina Centrum, which is in charge of granting permission for building advertisements of this kind, even refused to take Hator's application.
When deciding on applications by advertisers, the department takes into consideration the location of the advert, its size and color. Sylwia Rokicka, an officer at Gmina Centrum, said companies could not simply put up what they wanted. She said the Coke ad was at an intersection, which could be dangerous for drivers, and that it would spoil the view of the city.
Rokicka said that if the billboard did go up, the office would complain to the local Powiat Inspectorate of Construction and if it didn't yield any results, it would go to the courts.
Last Friday, Dzielnica Srodmiescie did inform the local Powiat Inspectorate of Construction that the ad had been erected without permission.
"All of this racket (discussion) doesn't make any sense," said Mariusz Twardowski, vice president at Hator. "We have legal expertise. It is not open for discussion."
Only Kiev, Ukraine, has a billboard of any size comparable to Coca-Cola's for the shampoo Organics.
Coca-Cola selected the size and location of the ad because of their believed prestige, said Romana Szmul, the marketing officer with the cola company. She said the advertisement would help promote the company's current campaign, and that it would hang on the Universal building until 2003. The image, however, will periodically change.
Hator's Twardowski said his company had proposed space rental on the Universal building to other companies but only Coca-Cola had taken up the firm's offer.
Coke planned to draw even more attention to the unveiling of the giant advertisement last week by giving away 10,000 cans of cola to passersby.
