Flip through a Conde Nast magazine this month and you might notice an advertising insert with black and white photographs of a group of creative types dubbed the "Audi 8." The multi-page ad was just part of Audi and Conde Nast's "Never Follow" campaign to promote the launch of Audi's 2004 A8 L model car with a series of five events nationwide, including a kickoff gala at Gotham Hall.
Elizabeth Mitchell, Conde Nast's director of special projects for corporate sales and marketing, produced the event in collaboration with Audi's Mary Ann Wilson and Rod Brown from Audi's advertising agency, McKinney and Silver. Using light illuminations produced by Lucette de Rugy of Arts Opera Promotion—one of the Audi 8—and created by German lighting company Casa Magica, the interior of Gotham's oval walls were lit with a dazzling array of images that featured Audi's logo interspersed with images of the car and the photos of the Audi 8 taken by photographer Peggy Sirota.
"We wanted to do a huge kickoff event in New York where we would honor all eight individuals with an interior illumination, and then we would we go out into other markets and illuminate the facades [of landmark buildings], which is what [de Rugy] is famous for," Mitchell said. At the New York event, Gotham Hall's smooth walls and soaring ceiling created an ideal palette for an interior light show. "It really lends itself to what we wanted to do in terms of immersing people in the world of these eight individuals with these illuminations," Mitchell said.
During the 30-minute show, a three-minute tribute of personalized illuminations and music from Max Salpetrier was dedicated to each member of the Audi 8. For Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté, the show included music and images from a Cirque show. For architect Daniel Libeskind, his renderings for the World Trade Center site were projected onto the walls. And for Black Entertainment Television (BET) founder Robert Johnson a hip-hop soundtrack played with projections of logos from BET shows and basketballs (he owns the Charlotte Bobcats basketball team). Following the light show, K. D. Lang, another member of the Audi 8, performed a short set to an enthusiastic crowd.
Among the related events: Fashion designer Narcisco Rodriguez was honored at a June 11 event in Coral Gables, Fla., which featured lighting that "dressed" the exterior of the Biltmore Hotel in two of Rodriguez's designs. Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy will be honored at Dallas' Meyerson Symphony Hall, John Malkovich will be honored at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art, and Laliberté will be honored at Los Angeles' Beverly Hills City Center. A television special profiling the Audi 8 will air in the fall.
—Suzanne Ito
