The company that makes these giant signs or "spectaculars," as they call them, is called SkyTag, is based in Beverly Hills (with a new Las Vegas office), and has been around for 20 years. Their first giant mural bedecked the Playboy building on the Sunset Strip in L.A. and was actually a projection; since then, new technology has enabled them to produce adhesive vinyl signs that stick to steel and glass, like those for Toni Braxton: Revealed at the Flamingo and LOVE at the Mirage, although they sometimes stick to more traditional methods. For example, the giant new 128' X 56'10" Barry Manilow image just unveiled at the Las Vegas Hilton is a permanent mural produced by a team of three painters over a five-day period using brushes and rollers.
The adhesive signs, which first appeared in Las Vegas in 2000 to promote the movie Armageddon at Luxor, use the same technology you've seen on buses. The building is "wrapped" in the image, which contains myriad tiny holes that allow you to see out, but present a seemingly solid image from the outside. SkyTag once "wrapped" an entire block in New York, namely department store Bloomingdales, and although they're reluctant to quote prices (since different factors at each site mean that every job is unique and not necessarily comparable with a similar sized one elsewhere), projects of those dimensions can approach the million-dollar mark or more.
Just the raw materials (vinyl, ink, etc.) cost an arm and a leg when you're producing a piece that size, plus the labor charges, both to install and take down the project, are obviously considerable. We asked about the latter and the company confirmed that yes, just as it's a lot easier for your kid to stick a sticker on your fridge than it is to get the darned thing off again, the dismantling can be harder than the installation, although there's a chemical that dissolves the adhesive and leaves the windows clean, without leaving that nasty sticky residue that could turn the building into a giant fly paper.
It's a particularly effective form of advertising, especially in a city like Las Vegas, where you can guarantee thousands of pairs of eyeballs a day passing your building and looking for the next big visual "wow." The image of Prince's symbol, which now adorns the side of the Rio, can apparently be seen from 14 miles out of town, 24/7 (at night, it's specially lit). In an era where DVR and TiVo allow people to skip through the traditional ad breaks on TV, SkyTag predicts that their "tallwall advertising" will become more and more common, especially in this town.
