The Museum of Old and New Art (Mona), despite owner David Walsh’s disdain for advertising and promotion, has launched its first brand campaign for the highly divisive Tasmanian museum.
The Best of Our Worst Reviews campaign repurposes the museum’s most savage reviews to promote the very thing Mona’s visitors love to hate. To further contextualise the very premise of interpretive live art, with the audience being the central crux of the work.
The series is led by a sequence of cinematic digital videos, integrated with the brand campaign which provides a subversive new use for bad reviews.
Mona’s marketing and communications director Robbie Brammal: "A bit of ad spend is a necessary evil as we help the Tassie tourism industry recover from the impacts of COVID. ‘But hopefully we’re doing it in a Mona way—one that’s ill-advised and potentially disastrous."
The quotes featured in the campaign are collated from real-world reviews posted in the decade since Mona’s 2011 opening show.
The directors sourced over 400 stunningly awful one-star reviews sourced from search engines such as Facebook, Google and TripAdvisor.
The Best of Our Worst Reviews was shot by award-winning director Alex Roberts of Finch and photographer Derek Henderson.
The campaign launches this month across social media, TV on-demand, cinema, inflight and outdoor placements. The campaign draws specific focus on Tasmania’s key inbound markets of Victoria and New South Wales. Merchandise Featuring one-star Mona reviews, as well as an AR Instagram filter will be available for purchase in late March.
"We’re hoping to pay for the campaign in tote and t-shirt sales," says Brammall.
Head of creative at Mona, Jardin Anderson: “David may hate advertising, but he loves honesty. And the Truth is some people love Mona, and some people hate Mona. Luckily, we believe that all opinions are valid. So valid, in fact, that we’ll put them up on a billboard on Parramatta or Punt Road.”
The campaign runs to May 28.
Professional gambler David Walsh created Mona as Australia’s largest private museum to house his collection of ancient, modern and contemporary art.
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