Tropicana Sun

Last Monday Tropicana created a 'giant' man made sun which they suspended from a crane in the middle of Trafalgar Square at about 6am. The purpose was to show that 'brighter mornings made for brighter days'. It's a nice idea, helping to brighten people's mornings with a giant ball of artificial sunlight. But I just can't help but feel it missed the mark a little.

It could have been so wonderfully glorious, illuminating London on a dreary Monday morning for all those groggy-eyed commuters. But instead it just looks like an oversized streetlight. And it's suspended from a crane, magical. Really magical. I wonder how they did it? Probably with a lot of expense.

And despite its size, I highly doubt this actually happened;

Image lovingly borrowed from the Daily Mail.

I mean, come on, it's still 6am on a British January morning.

It truly is a good idea and Tropicana clearly had their heart in the right place, but it just lacks the oomph it needs to make this a great campaign. So I did a bit of research that helped explain my disappoint. They'd done it before. They'd already used this idea and it was perfect the way it was. Tropicana Canada has set up a similar but a much better executed 'giant sun' in the Arctic. And we all know that the Arctic sees a hell of a lot less sunlight than  we do.

So why bother remaking it? Why bother making it into a version that, in comparison, seems half-hearted? Probably because the Marketing/PR department thought that it would be better to interact with the target market through a uniquely British art installation? And it is uniquely British, for all the wrong reasons.

So now I'm just going to leave you with the beauty of the original, so you can see how it should be done and why it should have been left as it was.