Dome launches campaign to lure 12 million
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.SHOOTING STARS representing the dreams of the nation, stirring music and a glorious dawn over the Millennium Dome will be used this week to try to persuade millions of Britons that the much-derided pounds 758m attraction in south-east London is worth visiting.
The New Millennium Experience Company (NMEC), which runs the dome, has opted for an epic, Eighties-style television advert created by the Saatchi brothers to announce that tickets for the dome go on sale tomorrow. M&C Saatchi, the second eponymous agency founded by the brothers, has created a campaign reminiscent of Saatchi and Saatchi's British Airways' advert, which saw a chunk of Manhattan fly over night-time London.
The advert, part of a pounds 16m campaign, uses shooting stars to illustrate the dreams of "representative Britons" and then suggests that they can all come true in the dome. It switches to a farmhouse in Yorkshire, a harbour in Northumberland and a tower-block estate in east London before ending with a shot of the dome at dawn.
The advert will be screened from tomorrow, when the tickets go on sale. Family tickets will cost pounds 57; adults will pay pounds 20.
Using the slogan "one amazing day", the advert will try to persuade the public that they can "land like aliens from outer space" in the Home Planet zone of the dome; "travel through the human body" in the Body Zone; or be "a three-dimensional computer game hero" in the Talk Zone. However, it glosses over exactly what people will be able to do and see when the dome opens in January.
Sholto Douglas-Home, the marketing director of NMEC, which has set itself the target of attracting 12 million visitors, admitted that people had negative perceptions about the dome, but he claimed the advertising would change this. "The more people know about what's in the dome the less perceptions of it will be clouded by politics, budgets or luvvies and creative types having spats about it. The more they know of what is in it, the more the negative attitudes will evaporate," he said. "We expect people to say to their friends in the pub after their visit, `That was amazing'."
Tickets will be sold through National Lottery retailers, which will be able to use their computers to check availability.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments