With porn star Jenna Jameson hosting her own event, Playmates at Playboy's party, and roller girls at Maxim's bash, Sports Illustrated promoted its own brand of T&A at its Super Bowl weekend event in Detroit. Called the “Super Swimsuit Party,” SI's event filled the Emerald Theatre in the Mt. Clemens neighborhood of Detroit for its booze-and-babes-filled bash on the night before the game. SI event marketing manager Hannah Park worked with a New York team from XA, the Experiential Agency to produce the event, which touted the magazine's most popular annual issue, and promoted the event's two main sponsors, Gillette and Budweiser.
Plasma screens displaying video and photo stills of bikini-clad models from the swimsuit issue hung from the theater's 18-foot-tall lobby wall draped with sheer fabric. (The tropical imagery shown onscreen must have a been a nice sight for the 2,600 partygoers—mostly SI advertising clients and NFL athletes and execs—who weathered a snowstorm to attend the event.) Inside the theater, large screens with the SI logo hung above the main stage, and more swimsuit stills and video mixed with sponsor logos and graphics were projected onto the stage and elevated Lucite DJ booth.
Event sponsor Budweiser covered the theater's wooden bars with underlit red plexiglass. A large ice sculpture from Creative Ice Sculptures containing bottles of Bud also framed a TV monitor that played a reel of Budweiser commercials. Gillette promoted its new Fusion razor inside the theater's upstairs Rock Room, which XA gave an 80's vibe with black leather furniture and a reel of 80's rock videos interspersed with Gillette's new Fusion commercial. A few Kid Rock videos—a nod to the hometown boy's influence on rock music—were mixed in as well.
Waitresses dressed in schoolgirl outfits—tiny black miniskirts and tight white button-down tops—circulated fare from the venue's kitchen, including fries in paper cones, quesadillas, and coconut shrimp. Other sexy diversions—aside from the swimsuit models in attendance—included the appearance of 27 Seattle Seahawks cheerleaders, who performed their cheers onstage, and go-go dancers, who danced onstage and next to the DJ booth. D-Nice spun for most of the night, taking a break for a performance by local band Jody Raffoul and later to hand the decks over to Kid Rock himself for a 30-minute DJ stint at midnight.
—Suzanne Ito
Photos: Scott Sprague, Domenic Centofanti/WireImage (stage)
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