Curious about the blue marlin sculpture in the Costa sunglass ad featured in the June issue of On The Water? Call it a case of art imitating life. Costa’s new advertising campaign features fish sculptures built entirely out of its own sunglass parts.
A mix of lenses, hinges, frame arms, nose pads, side shields and retainer cord segments from hundreds of Costa sunglasses went into building the mounted fish sculptures. Each fish was built using the sunglass lens color and frame technology necessary to catch that particular species. The blue marlin model glows with dozens of Costa’s 580™ blue mirror lenses as scales and silver and black frame arms as fins. Side shields and retainer cords add realistic detail to the billfish body.
Model makers McConnell & Borow/PropArt in New York were tapped for the job. The firm specializes in creating award-winning miniature sets, props, displays and editorial illustrations using a variety of materials such as acrylic, wood, metal, glass, plaster, clay, resin – and now, sunglasses.
“The most challenging and interesting part in building these fish sculptures is that we were working with materials (the sunglasses) that are made to be wiped clean and not hold dirt or smudges. We had to find adhesives that would work with the ‘stick repellency’ of the materials along with wiring that would hold, while not showing through in the finished product” said Mark Borow, owner of McConnell & Borow, Inc./PropArt. “We’ve worked in a lot of different mediums before to build models, but I can honestly say building fish sculptures out of Costa sunglass parts has been one of my most unique and rewarding experiences.”
We were founded by fishermen, and its avid fishermen who still work here,” said Al Perkinson, vice president of marketing for Costa Sunglasses. “Fishing is at the heart of everything we do – it’s why we work so hard to build the best sunglasses on the planet for anglers. So it was no surprise that the inspiration for our latest brand campaign came directly from the fish.”
Costa plans to donate the fish sculptures to fishing and outdoor advocacy groups later this year.