The Standard Hotel--which has properties in New York, Miami and Los Angeles--is known for being hip, artsy and a trendsetter in the cities that it resides in. Now the hip hotel has introduced a controversial ad campaign.
The campaign which is a collaboration with artist Erwin Wurm features a series of photos including a woman peeing on a rug, a woman drooling into a bowl of soup and a man with his head down a woman's shirt in a restaurant.
The add campaign is perhaps intended to surprise and startle while commenting on our fearfulness of being politically incorrect after the events of 9/11 and our struggles with the invasion of our personal freedom and space. The series is called, "Instructions on how to be politically incorrect" and the most controversial image of the woman peeing on a rug is being sold for $2,000 in the hotel's gift shop and also online.
Lehmann Maupin Gallery said this of the images, "In the series, Instructions on How to Be Politically Incorrect, Wurm tackles our heightened fearfulness following the events of 9/11. Threats on national and international security have made us more sensitive to our personal space and freedoms. An invasion of personal and private space is documented in this work. Wurm seems to be making fun of how much we have accepted intrusion into our private lives. Despite the lightheartedness of this series, these works of art have a serious intent and are a social and political critique of our changing world."
The campaign has appeared in a number of trendy publications including, Apartamento, Artforum, Fantastic Man, CR Fashion, The Brooklyn Rail, Interview, Dossier, Paper Magazine, V Magazine and more.
Andre Balazs properties has been exchanging hotel rooms at The Standard for space in the magazine. Andre Balazs, president and chief executive of the company said to The New York Times, " that the purpose of the advertisement is"bring a degree of sophistication" to ""selective audiences."
"We believe a good hotel is far more than a set of rooms," he adds. "What makes a hotel unique is its personality, its social life, its cultural life," he added.
See all the controversial photos from the campaign here.
