Brooklyn Children’s Museum: “Find Your Slow”

Circus Maximus, an independent creative shop that works with startups as well as companies that straddle legacy and digital brand positioning, announced the launch of a new campaign for Brooklyn Children’s Museum.

Brooklyn Children’s Museum was the first children’s museum in the world, founded in 1899. These days the center wants to assert itself as one of the most exciting, modern, and best-known museums in the city. To that end, it wants to elevate their brand with a culturally relevant tone and voice. They house many exciting traveling shows as well as numerous perennial educational exhibits, all in the unique residential neighborhood of Crown Heights.

For the BCM’s Fall OOH campaign, Circus Maximus conceived “Find Your Slow.” As a counterpoint to a popular New York indoor cycling brand, BCM wants to brand “slow” as a philosophical approach to city life that isn’t a negative in a town known for its speed. The campaign highlights how despite the belief that bigger, faster, stronger always wins, animals like the 2 toed sloth, and others have evolved and thrived by turning their small size and slow speed into their unique advantage.

“The campaign highlights a blockbuster exhibit as a must-visit cultural destination in the city. Brooklyn Children’s Museum is excited to bring one of the first sloths to Brooklyn! We seek engaging and unique conversations with New Yorkers both with our programming and our advertising,” said Atiba Edwards, Executive Vice President and COO of Brooklyn Children’s Museum.

The campaign consists of three different pieces featuring animals cast as would-be instructors that are teaching viewers about the merits of slow, with intentionally melodramatic mantra-esque headlines like, “Slow hard or slow home.” “Live slow, die old.” “Slow your roll.” The campaign encourages all New Yorkers to “find your slow.”

“It was fun to create this campaign as commentary on city life, while using a pop cultural phenomenon as a jumping off point. People who get the reference should get a laugh, and everyone will be able to appreciate the lessons learned at this exhibit,” said Ryan Kutscher, chief creative officer of Circus Maximus. “So we’re educating and entertaining people who are feeling the pain while reading about our solutions.”

The campaign will run through the end of November on LinkNYC boards throughout New York City subway system.