ICYMI, New York City has a thing for portmanteaus and acronyms. For example, there’s SoHo (South of Houston), the BQE (Brooklyn-Queens Expressway), NoLita (North of Little Italy) and TriBeCa (Triangle Below Canal). One of the most cumbersome is DUMBO or Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass, and one neighborhood agency thinks it should possibly stand for something a little more inspiring.
Former Grey New York ECD Rob Baiocco and Grey Healthy People president Maureen Maldari started The BAM Connection–which is completely unrelated to the Brooklyn Academy of Music–last year. The agency used its holiday party earlier this month as an opportunity to launch DUMBO Inspired, an art project that looks to reward those who come up with the best alternate acronyms and perhaps win a bit of press attention for their agency in the process. (Incredible, we know.)
“Each day we come to work we are inspired by this neighborhood, the creativity, the new world thinking,” says Baiocco, “So we were inspired to do an homage to it. Very few people actually know what the acronym D.U.M.B.O. stands for, so we decided to have a little creative license with it. The possibilities are endless.”
The shop made a bunch of posters and will soon pick a winner of the acronym contest but, more significantly, it plans to award the First Annual DUMBO Artist Grant in May of 2016, giving one local creative a preset sum to “further their artistic endeavors.” The agency will fund said grant itself along with some help from “others in the neighborhood” like, say, Huge?
Here are a couple of entries already submitted by BAM Connection. The first poster may be our favorite.
From the party, there’s also “Damn Unicycles Making Bears Obsese,” which makes little or no sense but you just have to roll with it.
You may not have seen much of BAM Connection’s work yet, but its client list currently includes the American Heart Association, the Julliard School and Wrangler, among others. This spring it created a PSA for The American Stroke Association which starred Paul George of the Pacers.
Regarding the DUMBO project, Maldari says, “A simple set up like this really lets people explode with creativity. We got great ones from all walks of life: ad people, pr, musicians, artists, friends, family.”
Here are some of those entries.
Dogs Uplift Man’s Bleak Outlook –@thebamconnect #dumboinspired
— The Bam Connection (@thebamconnect) December 9, 2015
Yes they do!
Dangling Ubiquitous Meat Before Oprah –@thebamconnect #dumboinspired — The Bam Connection (@thebamconnect) December 9, 2015
That sounds…interesting.
Designated Ugly Male Beats Off -Iain Douglas #dumboinspired — The Bam Connection (@thebamconnect) December 9, 2015
Harsh!
Drinking Under Mistletoe Brings Offspring -Debbie Canterino #dumboinspired
— The Bam Connection (@thebamconnect) December 10, 2015
It certainly can.
One of the winners from #dumboinspired contest #dumbo @thebamconnect https://t.co/lAqcoROF7t
— maureen maldari (@mmaldari) December 12, 2015
Well-deserved.
Here, we just came up with one: “Do Underwear Models Buy Online?”
This game is hard.
BAM eventually wants to organize a gallery show to highlight the best related work, and there should be more news to come on the grant, but for now you can check out the project’s Facebook page, which we’re told will share a new poster every week.
Featured image via