Pop-up Dumpster Pool by David Belt
Pop-up stores, events, street art ideas, have re-inspired the passion of many consumers, especially during economic hard times. Pop-up retail ideas have re-inspired brands and stores, as well as provided new media platforms for marketing and advertising. But it’s not all about the sale. Sometimes its culture jamming and taking a stance on a particular issue that has inspired a pop-up program, or it’s simply a way to take pretentiousness down a notch. The most notorious pop-up artist is Banksy, who always seems to create extensive excitement for his latest installations via an unusual pop-up format. The last bastion of reasoning behind a well-planned pop-up is because it’s just plain funny.
Take the pop-up dumpster pool ideas on Park Avenue by David Belt for instance. Starting last Saturday, August 7th, and running for the next 2 Saturday’s, part of Park Avenue is getting closed down to bikers, pedestrians and swimmers. Created by David Belt and his eco firm Macro Sea, he’s created 3, 8-feet by 22-feet dumpsters into pools with a felt bottom that can hold up to 10 people at a time.
Photos by David Belt–his Dumpster Pool on Park Ave.
Pop-up Dumpster Pools
According to the New York Times, Belt’s intention is pretty simple: “I think it would be so great if different municipalities that couldn%uFFFDt afford to build a whole park could set up these pop-up pools.” He said that his pop-up pools only cost $200 to move on a truck in NYC. He also thinks it’s about time that someone takes another look at Park Ave. and takes its hoity reputation down a notch, which a dumpster pool out your front door can effectively do.
He’s hoping the idea catches on in other urban areas such as Market Street in San Francisco, 2nd Street in Austin, Texas, possibly even Orchard Street in Singapore by next summer.
Limited Edition Pop-Tart–Photo by Pop-Tart.
Pop-up Pop-Tart
In other NYC pop-up news is Kellogg’s re-invention of the Pop-Tart in Times Square. Thanks to social media, the brand finally realized that there are serious fanatics about the 50-year-old pastry who often discuss various flavors and homemade designs on dedicated Facebook pages and YouTube videos.
Starting tomorrow, Tuesday, August 10, Kellogg is dedicating a 3,000 square foot area to the toaster pastries, including limited-edition, freshly baked Pop-Tarts, “sushi rolls” (Pop-Tarts of various flavors rolled together and cut like a sushi roll), and a special street art interactive area where you can get “frosted and wrapped in foil.”
30 new Pop-Tart brands will also be debuted. Clearly, this is an ingenious way to re-market and advertise, and hopefully make Pop-Tarts more relevant again to those who are not diehard fans.
Pop-up pot plant–Photo by NYC The Blog.
Pop-up Pot
Finally, in Brooklyn, guerilla gardening and seed grenades may have been taken to a whole new level with various pot plants popping up around the area. According to NYC The Blog and Bunny Lane, they’ve been spotted on 1st Street and 2nd Avenue in Manhattan, and again in parts of Brooklyn and around Union Square.
Perhaps this is part of the ongoing guerilla gardening happening in urban areas around the world whereby rebels sneak out and recreate little greenery patches, even fixing up potholes in roads with sprightly flowers, and recreating something new out of the urban detritus. As a “gateway” drug, we can only hope that this will inspire even more beautiful guerrilla gardening ideas.
