USAIN Bolt, the ‘world’s fastest man’ and Olympic sprint champion, is now truly larger than life.
An image of a double-sized Bolt is now prominently featured on a Nissan billboard at Terminal 3 of Dubai’s international airport – and, in keeping with the word record theme, the billboard’s dimensions have been reconised as a new Guinness World Record.
The ad shows Bolt, already a standout at 1.95m tall in the flesh, at over 4.1m even in a crouched position. The mega-sized picture of Usain Bolt is one of a series of advertisements currently placed in major international airports around the world as part of Nissan’s “What IF_” global brand campaign.
It is estimated that it would take the world’s fastest man the same time to run across the length of the ad as it takes a model year 2013 Nissan GT-R to accelerate from 0-62mph in 2.7 seconds.
Commenting on the new Guinness accolade, Usain Bolt said: ‘It is a pleasure being part of another world record and I continue breaking world records, because that’s what I do.’
Paul O’Neill, vice-president of Guinness World Records, has officially recognised Nissan’s backlit indoor advertising sign as the largest of its type in the world.
O’Neill presented Nissan, represented by Roel De-Vries, Global Marketing vice president and Atsuo Kosaka, managing director of Nissan Middle East, with a Guinness World Record certificate recognising this feat. The recognition was shared with Dubai International, and a specially-commissioned commemorative plaque of the record was offered to His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, president of the Department of Civil Aviation, and Chairman of Dubai Airports.
‘It felt natural for Nissan to choose Dubai International, one of the largest and most important airports in the world, as of one of the key locations for the deployment of our global brand campaign. Nissan is proud to have achieved a world record in Dubai, the city of so many world records,’ said de-Vries.
‘It is an honour to have His Highness with us today as Nissan celebrates another landmark day in the Middle East,’ said Atsuo Kosaka. ‘When we began this project, we were bold enough to ask ourselves, what if we can turn our advertising at Dubai International into a world record?. Today we see the result of that commitment as we once again deliver ‘Innovation that Excites’ into everything we do in the Middle East region.’
Nissan’s global brand campaign will reach 100 per cent of the passengers of Terminal 1 and 3, Concourse A and Concourse B, through more than 74 touch points at Dubai International.