Visually stunning body painting can be used to great effect to promote products, services or organisations. Since founding Getmadeup.com in 2004 I’ve worked with numerous marketing, advertising and PR agencies, or sometimes directly with companies and charities, to produce memorable and distinctive body painting designs. My body art has been seen on TV, in newspapers and magazines, on packaging such as CD covers and book covers, or on models at events such as exhibitions, trade shows and product launches. I have a brilliant team of artists who work with me on larger assignments so we can confidently produce stunning results on campaigns of any size, from one model on a photo shoot to multiple models in various locations for coordinated publicity stunts. Here are a few examples:

 

Launch of new Diet Coke bottle design

In 2012 fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier created a design for 2 new limited edition bottles for ‘Diet Coke’. I was commissioned by Lexis agency to paint 2 models in the new design for a live body art installation where the models would pose in a window display in Harvey Nichols to publicise the launch of the new designs. The models had to be ready for the early morning rush hour, so my team and I had a 3 a.m. call time to get the models finished for their shop window appearance.

The following measurement and evaluation was reported by PR Week:

The campaign generated 909 pieces of coverage across 33 national and consumer print titles including The Sun, Daily Mirror, The Independent and the Daily Mail. Magazine coverage included InStyle, Heat, Closer, S, You and Star. The tour bus alone generated 70 pieces of coverage. More than 2,500 limited edition products worth £12,000 were sold on the first day.

More at the prweek.com website here

 

Walkers Crisps Promotion with Gary Lineker

I was delighted to take part in the ‘Gary’s Great Ingredient Hunt’ promotion for Walkers Crisps with Gary Lineker. The challenge was to use body paint to hide/camouflage Gary into 2 different backgrounds.

When I’m working with celebrities I’m aware that their time is usually pretty valuable so the timings can be quite tight. On this occasion my fellow artist and member of my team Emily Dowdeswell came along to help speed up completion of the body painting.

“Over the years I’ve done some weird and wonderful things with Walkers, but I’ve never been made to disappear,” said the former England striker. “It will be fun to see people’s reactions when they find me in the image and realise I’m buried in amongst the fresh, homegrown ingredients.”

The photos from the campaign appeared in The Daily Mirror and Daily Star as well as numerous online media websites.

 

 

NHS Blood Donor Promotional Campaign

In 2012 the NHS Blood & Transplant Service needed to increase blood stocks by 30% for the Olympics to cope with the increased visitors in the country. So I was commissioned to design a full body paint which would show veins, arteries and hearts. The design would be then painted on eight volunteers to represent the four main blood groups. On the day of the campaign we had to get the eight models ready for an early morning press call, so I put together a team of seven body artists to assist me and we started the painting at around 4 a.m.

During the painting process we were filmed for the ‘Blood art’ery’ video which gave a behind the scenes look at the work in progress. The film also features some great footage of the painted volunteers out and about in London.

This was an extremely successful campaign. The video generated a huge amount of mainstream coverage and there was an immediate public response. In one day alone 30,000 people visited the blood.co.uk and there was in increase in calls from possible donors of 29%.

International PR Agency Red Consultancy won an award for ‘Excellence in the Use of Innovative Media Outreach’ for this campaign. Fantastic photography by Adrian Brooks.Imagewise.

You can watch the video on YouTube here

 

Camouflage Body Painting to promote launch of new TV series

In 2012 I was commissioned to body paint 3 camouflaged models to blend them into various London locations for a promotional campaign to launch the UK premiere of the new series of the CIA drama ‘Covert Affairs’ on Really TV. One model was camouflaged to blend into the outside of an iconic London taxi cab. Another setting was for the model to be camouflaged onto the back seat of a London bus. But the most popular image was the painting that I did in a street market. I blended the model into a fruit and vegetable stall and the reactions from the passing shoppers was brilliant. This image has been shared all around the world and has also been the subject of two meme’s!

 

Promotion of the Marriott London Sevens rugby competition

In 2013 I was commissioned to body paint several rugby players in a safari theme to promote the launch of the Marriott London Sevens rugby tournament.

Rugby players Dan Norton, Michaela Staniford, Chris Cracknell, Tom Mitchell and Alice Richardson were painted in safari animal designs that represented their own strengths and style of play.

World Series leading try scorer Dan Norton became a Cheetah to signify his lightning pace. Norton said: “Each year the fans fancy dress outfits get better and better so we thought we’d get in on the action.

All the players were great fun to work with and it was a really enjoyable shoot for myself and my Getmadeup team of artists.

The photos received wide exposure in the media including the Daily Mail, the London Evening Standard and The Sun.

You can see Tom Mitchell and Chris Cracknell talking on YouTube about their painted characters here.

 

Promotion of the release of ‘X Men First Class’ on DVD and Blu Ray

In 2011 I was asked if I could transform 2 models into Mystique and Azazel for a week of PR activity to publicise the release of ‘X Men First Class’ on DVD.

For Mystique’s character I hand made all the numerous latex pieces myself and then had to reproduce the look several times on various models throughout the week. They appeared at different London locations including seated on an underground train and in a 1960’s style ‘pop up lounge’ at Victoria Station which featured a recreation of one of the sets from the film.

Here, commuters could pose for photos with the characters and also stop and join in with various activities that included playing chess in a setting that was very similar to the one that appears in the film, complete with replica 60’s Chesterfield sofas.

The lounge was opened by Jason Flemyng who plays Azazel in the film. The week’s activity ended with a photoshoot with model Sam Cooke where I transformed her into Mystique for a stunning set of photos by photographer Stewart Williams.

You can see the link for the video from the transformation on YouTube here.