Novel advertising campaign to put parks on the map

Jun 3 2008 by Vicky Anderson, Liverpool Daily Post

AN ADVERTISING campaign drawing attention to the city’s unique and often little-known parks launches today as part of the Liverpool Biennial’s Culture Year programme.

Artist Nils Norman has spent the past few months working closely with the city’s park experts, exploring and photographing places including Greenbank, Everton, Sefton, Birkenhead and Princes parks, and Waver- tree Botanic Gardens, with the aim of drawing attention to the city’s green spaces.

He has developed a spin on the conventional advertising campaign and is repackaging the parks as if they were a product of holiday destination.

The posters will be rolled out on buses, bus shelters, in stations and on billboards.

Complementing the campaign, Norman has linked the parks through the city’s public transport system by creating online maps so everyone can explore the secrets of the parks.

An accompanying interactive website will also be launched today at www.liverpoolparks.org, where the public can explore the parks online, highlighting their histories and curiosities. Visitors to the site will be encouraged to email their own images and favourite places, creating an online archive.

It’s all part of Visible Virals, part of the Culture Company’s public realm programme managed by Liverpool Biennial, reflecting cultural life in the city and its communities and neighbourhoods.