New Orleans and 360i Welcome Centaurs, Drag Queens, and Skeletons in Transit Takeover

This year the city of New Orleans turns 300 years old. In promotion of the upcoming tricentenntial, New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation has debuted a provocative vintage photo gallery in New York’s Union Square subway station. Showcasing archival images from the city’s history, the city is encouraging passersby to “Leave with a story, not a souvenir.”

A man in make-up and a bustier is draped over a Pontiac during Mardi Gras 1954; strangers in face paint share an open mouth kiss; the raucous North Side Skull and Bones gang awaken the Treme neighborhood; and a half-naked man in a centaur costume walks aimlessly down the street. The execution, created in partnership with 360i, required exactly 154 separate pieces of creative to cover New York’s bustling Union Square station.

The OOH work builds on New Orleans latest marketing effort, “One Time, in New Orleans,” which celebrates the city’s 300 years of storytelling. While other cities might be built on concrete, New Orleans is built on stories.

The subway photographs, which were also featured in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International airport during peak Super Bowl travel, come directly from the city’s archive and feature work from renowned and legendary photographers like Bruce Gilden, of the Magnum Photos Collective, Jack Robinson, known for his seminal work with VOGUE, Robbie McClaran, and Michael P. Smith, who photographed the New Orleans Jazz Festival for over three decades. The subway creative also features colors and textures lifted directly from New Orleans shotgun houses, bungalows, cottages, cemetery walls, antique doors, and potholes as part of the city’s new design and re-branding.

For more on the “One Time, in New Orleans” campaign and the city’s tricentennial year visit gonola.com.