New Yorkers are divided on lots of things: Yankees versus Mets, whether pizza should be folded, JFK versus LGA (they both suck), the list is seemingly endless. And now Max’s House of Dragon has city dweller’s in another heated debate: Team Black versus Team Green.
In what appears to be a King Kong–style homage, New Yorkers have spotted Queen Viseyna’s dragon Vhagar wrapped around the tip of the Empire State Building. The installation is a masterful marketing move which rivals that of last summer’s blockbuster hit Barbie: Max (formerly HBO) has partnered with one of the city’s most recognizable landmarks to promote the popular television show House of Dragon, a prequel to Game of Thrones.
Vhagar can be spotted by onlookers from street level all the way up to the building’s 86th Floor Observatory. Atop the Empire State Building, visitors can go face to face with the dragon after snapping a pic for Instagram on an Iron Throne replica. All in all, the intervention adds to New York’s allure as a fictional medieval citadel.
“Just after the Empire State Building pledged its allegiance to the King, Vhagar descended upon the heart of New York City and has claimed the mast of the ‘World’s Most Famous Building’ as her perch,” said Empire State Realty Trust Chairman and CEO Tony Malkin in a press release.
Fashioning the 270-foot-long fire breather was no easy feat. The advertising display comprises 1,700 patterns and 600,000 inches of stitches. It was fixed to the spiral by 153 rigging points. The fabricating team behind the marketing ploy is creative agency Giant Spoon and Bigger Than Life Advertising. Certainly, it’s no coincidence that Bigger Than Life Advertising’s president Mark Bachman was the genius behind the famous 1983 King Kong installation.
Aside from the Vhagar sighting, astute citadel dwellers may have also laid eyes on banners flying high (and low) at other institutions, landmarks, and dives across the city. Last week, images circulated on social media depicting banners hanging from the towers of New York City bridges. The hyperrealistic images were later revealed to be deceptive, AI-generated content. The trend even continued with digitally rendered banners pictured on Citi Field, Penn Station, and other landmark buildings.
Eventually actual banners started popping up outside dining establishments. The flags advertise the show, which had its season two premiere on June 16, but also proclaim the business’s loyalty to the families at the center of the show: Team Black (which pledges allegiance to Rhaenyra Targaryen) and Team Green (loyal to King Aegon II Targaryen and Queen Alicent Hightower).
This editor is Team Black.
