Eichborn - Banners on flies (for real) - ambient, Germany

Jung von Matt just invented flyvertising. At the recent Frankfurt book convention they attached banners to 200 flies and set them loose to do their jobs as miniature sky ads around the convention center. In German, it's called a Fliegenbanner. Fliegenbanner, what a silly word.

No flies were harmed during this stunt. But a lot of people laughed.

The weight of the banner itself, attached with a string and some sticky stuff that allowed it to eventually fall off without harming the fly, was so that the fly could fly with it, but not very high and they kept landing on visitors. Do flies get short of breath?

Client: Eichborn
Ad agency: Jung von Matt

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Anonymous Adgrunt's picture
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Holger Wilcks's picture

Here's what the Journal of Experimental Biology has to say about flies getting short of breath:

http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/209/13/iv

Dabitch's picture

I bow to your google-fu.

Also, I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall at the pre-production meeting of this stunt.

Neo's picture

I APPROVE OF THIS IDEA!

Marcos Tavolaro's picture

Look at the size of those flies!!!!Jung von Matt scores again…but for what client is this for?

Dabitch's picture

Eichborn is a publishing company. Their logo is a fly. Flybranding too! ;-P

Neo's picture

Philip K Dick wrote about commercial flies way back in 1964.

Something sizzled to the right of him. A commercial, made by Theodorus Nitz, the worst house of all, had attached itself to his car.
"Get off," he warned it. But the commercial, well-adhered, began to crawl, buffeted by the wind, toward the door and the entrance crack. It would soon have squeezed in and would be haranguing him in the cranky, garbagey fashion of the Nitz advertisements.
He could, as it came through the crack, kill it. It was alive, terribly mortal: the ad agencies, like nature, squandered hordes of them.
The commercial, flysized, began to buzz out its message as soon as it managed to force entry. "Say! Haven't you sometimes said to yourself, I'll bet other people in restaurants can see me! And you're puzzled as to what to do about this serious, baffling problem of being conspicuous, especially-"
Chic crushed it with his foot.
kamari's picture

Who here speaks German and can tell me what they hell the super says?

kurtberengeiger's picture

The frst chart reads:
Eichborn
The publisher with the fly

The second and third charts read:
No flies were hurt in the making of this promotion.
The banner was attached with a wax that dissolved after a few hours.

mpared's picture

this is truly amazing i love it ....
www.thecuriousbrain.com

bmtravis's picture

Wow, this is definitely one of the most creative ways of marketing I've seen in a while. It might not be the best way of advertising a product, but it definitely catches people's eyes when they get out there. Innovation in advertising is a great way to increase the market share, especially in saturated markets. Eichborn has done a really great job here. Hopefully those flies aren't getting too tired.