SEATTLE – More than 100 man-sized kites lit up the sky over the city’s north side during yesterday’s rush hour, the latest viral ad campaign launched by the Credit Unions of Washington.
The ‘Kites Over Washington’ exhibit, sponsored by the Credit Unions of Washington cooperative ad campaign, was frustrated somewhat by yesterday’s slack wind but organizers will try again today to launch all 121 kites together representing each of the Evergreen State’s credit unions in a "kite ballet."
Hundreds of passers-by were awe-struck at the sight of the seven-foot kites with 20-foot tails, created by master kite-flyer Seth Abramson. Abramson has been making art with kites for more than 12 years, but this is his biggest kite performance.
The exhibit was developed by Seattle ad house Big Bang, which created other so-called viral campaigns for Washington’s credit unions, including a series of Internet videos called Change is Beautiful," and 15-second online pieces aimed at creating a "chaos-free" environment.
The viral ads – so-called because they are to be passed along from person to person--are meant to spread awareness of credit unions in a non-overt way.
The ads were aimed at developing a financial chaos-free setting in the current chaotic marketplace, according to David Bennett, spokesman for the Washington CU League, which participated in the project. "This was very beautiful; very chaos-free," he told The Credit Union Journal yesterday of the high-flying ads.
The kites were launched at Gas Works Park, on the north side of town, just a stone’s throw form the Space Needle. Each of the kites had a blue dot and the credit union label.
