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Reader John tells us that he emailed a photograph of the wrapped Flatiron building to the Landmarks Preservation Commission to complain about the H&M ad looming at 23rd Street. They emailed him back, saying the Department of Buildings had "issued nine violations for the illegal advertising." He lists the violations here, but our favorites are: "Prohibited advertising sign," "Installing advertising sign without a permit," and "Sign creates hazardous wind load," and "Failure to get permit from Buildings Department." We wonder if this means the ad will have to go; if there are fines by the day, it might become cost prohibitive, but not as cost prohibitive as a crazy gust of wind blowing the sign down!
Gothamist on the wrapped Flatiron.
Photograph by Towleroad
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Damn, you mean that thing is actually up? I just ignored those posts thinking it was some sort of april fool/media smash-up thing. That is horrible. Gotta go get my climbing gear.....
you can complain to H&M here:
http://www.hm.com/us/hm/startfaq/contact_srt.jsp
BLASPHEMY!
How dare they ruin one of the greatest buildings ever!
Next they'll do one up the Empire State Building!
STOP H&M!
Brilliant!
Would you really rather look at black scaffolding netting? The image is a little less then exciting,(a little drab trying to hard not to stand out) and it will all disappear when the construction is complete.
Didn't they at one point actually have an inflatable King Kong hanging off the Empire State Building not very long ago as some sort of promotional thing? I seem to remember It was hung up near the spire and seeing it from a distance and although the King Kong was huge, it still looked so small in the context of the building. Anyone else remember that?
Huh.
You'd think they'd be smart enough to get the correct permits.
Go Figure.
I pass it everyday. Me, I just hope it's only up for the duration of any repairs. Interesting Architecture is meant to be viewed, not covered up.
They could have gotten the correct permits but then H&M wouldn't have gotten all this free publicity on Gothamist, in the tabloids, on TV, etc. The value of all the free mentions probably is worth more than the cost of a permit.
How much are the fines? Hundreds? Thousands?
This is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in free advertising.
I'd bet companies are going to study the fines structure in this city and take advantage when the value of the ad benefit exceeds the punishment for the infraction.
So let me get this straight - H&M sent out some covert marketing team who hung this ad without any permission from the building owners?
Because that's how a lot of you are making this sound with the "STOP H&M" rally.
Someone, somewhere, obviously had the power to authorize the advertising on the front of the Flatiron building, and that person has probably made a hell of a lot of money off of the ad. Go off on them.