Campaign for Culture
MCA executives are counting on the campaign, developed by the Chicago office of Hal Riney & Partners, to establish their new $46 million museum as a must-see destination long after the initial wave of curiosity has subsided. Throughout its 29-year history, the MCA has lived like a poor relative in the long shadow of the Art Institute. But executives at both insti-tutions are looking forward to the opening of the MCA’s new digs and the attention it will attract. The ads are meant to play to a larger audience than the one that already cares about art.
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That’s why the ads don’t show any art. Riney creative director Paul Janas says they’re meant to suggest that the museum will be more than a collection of art in a building. “We wanted to find a way to show visually how many different things there are at the new museum,” says Janas, who, along with creative director Bill Mericle, oversaw the development of the campaign. The MCA’s Kleinerman agreed: “We didn’t want to boil down anyone’s experience of visiting the new MCA to just one or two specific pieces of art.”
