NYC – With guests including Andrew Rannells, Kellan Lutz, Olivia Polermo and Maggie Gyllenhaal, Pepsi opened its “Love: From Cave To Keyboard” pop-up exhibit to guests on Thursday, July 14th, 2016.
On Thursday night, Pepsi hosted a dynamic half history lesson, half art exhibit in Soho, which was, according to according to Carla Hassan, SVP Global Brand Management, PepsiCo, “inspired by the communication currency of today’s digital culture[.]” In a word, she’s talking about emojis, of which there are 1000’s of them, including Pepsi’s very own. But Pepsi, high on a major marketing kick that revolves around both ‘love’ and emojis, this exhibits tied the two together, exploring communication.
At the event, we experienced communication through the years, from a silent film narrated by Maggie Gyllenhaal, a music experience by LION BABE, illustrations that revolved around Max Fletcher’s Betty Boop, a sign-language driven vignette performed by Amelia Hensley, Daniel Durant, Miles Barbee and Treshelle Edmonds (who we ran into later at an to-remain-unnamed club). They’re all cast members of Spring Awakening, produced by Deaf West Theater.
That’s not all, there were also features involving a collection of curated images to portray the power of photography. Capturing some of these stories in real-time, images shot by Instagram photographers Daniel Arnold (@arnold_daniel), @Roon and @JoshFromNY will be made into a live experience. There was also a devoted effort towards ancient communications like cave drawings, smoke signals, hieroglyphics, and more.
And of course, The Rise of Emoji, which is the the final installation that features “Heart,” an original sculpture by Brooklyn-based artist Shinji Murakami, who brings to life a retro 8-bit image of a heart emoji into 3D. It’s a companion to the PepsiMoji experience, which involves complete with facial recognition technology matching your expressions with a PepsiMoji design. Its an ambitious effort and is now open to the public.
Located at 433 Broadway in the heart of SoHo in Manhattan, the exhibit is free and open from 10:00 am – 6:00 pm on Saturday, July 16th and Sunday, July 17th. If you can’t make it, download the PepsiMoji keyboard for iPhone or Android.
