Don Julio turns the Strat into a 1,000 foot-tall tequila bottle

It may look like a needle most days, but during Super Bowl weekend, The Strat will turn into a 1,149-foot-tall bottle of tequila.

Tequila brand Don Julio wants to grab the world’s attention with a projection-mapping stunt running for the Super Bowl that transforms two sides of The Strat’s tower. A team of 20 people with Las Vegas-based production company Lumen and Forge helped set up the projection mapping on the Strat’s observation tower over two weeks.

The ad campaign, created by Las Vegas-based Outdoor Ad Solutions, uses projection technology to light up the image of a 1942 Don Julio bottle. The projection mapping will light up to almost 2 million lumens — a measurement equal to lighting nearly 4,767 50-watt lightbulbs, according to the brand. The stunt will be visible Thursday on the Strip until Sunday.

Christina Choi, senior vice president of tequila with parent company Diageo North America, said the liquor brand has put out big marketing campaigns during the Super Bowl through celebrations and even a luxury streetwear brand crossover with Johnnie Walker Blue Label and fashion label Siegelman Stable. But this time, they wanted to put the campaign in a more visible spot.

“In a landscape saturated with conventional advertisements during one of the most-watched annual sporting events in the world, Tequila Don Julio is rewriting the rules with a first-of-its-kind stunt leveraging cutting edge projection technology while leaning into the iconicity of the hosting city to ensure that fans both near and far, whether walking the streets of the Las Vegas Strip or celebrating at-home are reminded to do so with Tequila Don Julio 1942,” she said in a statement.

Two 35-by-35 structures rise up 20 feet in the air, sitting roughly 650 and 700 feet away from the tower to project the light-up tequila bottle’s design. The orange bottle “filled up” the observation tower’s blank space with a countdown at about 7:15 p.m. Thursday.

Advertisers are flocking to the Super Bowl host city this week and looking to make a bigger-than-usual splash through unique advertising opportunities presented on one of the country’s most recognizable skylines. The Sphere’s exoscreen is already playing animations from brands such as Bud Light, Verizon, Nike and Paramount Global — the latter of which had Spongebob SquarePants looking around the Strip.

Meanwhile other buildings owned by MGM Resorts International had advertising wraps on them, like a Pepsi ad on the Delano and a Doritos ad on the front of the Luxor that makes it look like a chip. And the NFL was getting into the projection mapping action with a three-and-a-half minute show featuring NFL team graphics and player information illuminated onto the side of Caesars Palace’s Augustus Tower.

Brands are also taking over the Strip on a street level. Paramount Global has an interactive exhibit in front of the Mirage, replacing its volcano with a snow-capped mountain, and Frito-Lay created a “Chip Strip” in front of the Brooklyn Bridge, complete with a Cheetos-themed wedding chapel.

McKenna Ross is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Contact her at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on X.