To promote its new Venus Vibrance—a battery-operated, vibrating razor—Gillette set up the Venus Vibrance Leg Room, a pop-up promotion in Times Square celebrating legs and beauty and fitness fads. Michele Szynal, Gillette’s director of corporate communications, worked with public relations firm Porter Novelli and event design company JesGordon Proper Fun to put together the two-day promotion, which included a variety of leg-related activities and a series of performances and celebrity appearances for consumers who stopped by the corner of 42nd Street and Broadway.
Gordon decorated the 1,800-square-foot ground floor space (used last year by Target) with her trademark fun and quirky style, featuring two separate vignettes, a stage with a vibrating floor, and a column embellished with artwork from five different artists. Everything was pink (to match the new razor) and feminine—from the carpet’s color to the wall draping, to the feather boas used as velvet ropes to divide the vignettes.
One vignette, inspired by the packaging of the Venus Divine Paradise (the Venus Vibrance’s predecessor), included two palm trees wrapped with lights, a birdcage, plastic flamingos, and a faux waterfall (a plastic sheet hung from the ceiling with water streaming down it). The other vignette imitated a women’s locker room, with a pink bench and pink lockers from State Supply Equipment & Props, and a wall adorned with vinyl half-spheres painted pink and blue served as a backdrop. The center section of the pink and orange feather-covered stage (the platform where M.C. Danielle Manaro from the Z100 Morning Zoo announced guests) was hollowed out and filled with about 300 razors, making it vibrate.
Entertainment included a ribbon-cutting ceremony with Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas, a kickoff performance by the Knicks City Dancers, a fitness class led by Beverly Hills-based personal trainer Gunnar Peterson, and a leg-inspired fashion show by Patricia Field (a combination of leg-baring fashions, burlesque poses, and ballet dancers).
Giving the curious members of the public who walked in off the street something to do (other than eye the decor and wait for celebrities), the event included leg assessments (by three representatives from the Ford Model Agency), leg massages (performed by women from the Mark Edwards Agency), and temporary leg tattoos from Artemix.
—Anna Sekula
Gordon decorated the 1,800-square-foot ground floor space (used last year by Target) with her trademark fun and quirky style, featuring two separate vignettes, a stage with a vibrating floor, and a column embellished with artwork from five different artists. Everything was pink (to match the new razor) and feminine—from the carpet’s color to the wall draping, to the feather boas used as velvet ropes to divide the vignettes.
One vignette, inspired by the packaging of the Venus Divine Paradise (the Venus Vibrance’s predecessor), included two palm trees wrapped with lights, a birdcage, plastic flamingos, and a faux waterfall (a plastic sheet hung from the ceiling with water streaming down it). The other vignette imitated a women’s locker room, with a pink bench and pink lockers from State Supply Equipment & Props, and a wall adorned with vinyl half-spheres painted pink and blue served as a backdrop. The center section of the pink and orange feather-covered stage (the platform where M.C. Danielle Manaro from the Z100 Morning Zoo announced guests) was hollowed out and filled with about 300 razors, making it vibrate.
Entertainment included a ribbon-cutting ceremony with Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas, a kickoff performance by the Knicks City Dancers, a fitness class led by Beverly Hills-based personal trainer Gunnar Peterson, and a leg-inspired fashion show by Patricia Field (a combination of leg-baring fashions, burlesque poses, and ballet dancers).
Giving the curious members of the public who walked in off the street something to do (other than eye the decor and wait for celebrities), the event included leg assessments (by three representatives from the Ford Model Agency), leg massages (performed by women from the Mark Edwards Agency), and temporary leg tattoos from Artemix.
—Anna Sekula
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M.C. Danielle Manaro of Z100 opened the two-day promotional event for Gillette’s new razor with the Black Eyed Peas’ Fergie on a vibrating stage designed by Jes Gordon.
One vignette inspired by the Venus Divine Paradise razor’s packaging featured palm trees, flamingos, a birdcage, and a faux waterfall.
A team from the Mark Edwards Agency provided weary visitors with free leg massages.
Patricia Field led a leg-inspired fashion show that included ballet dancers.
