Kisses for New York

Hershey Foods Corp. (Hershey, Pa.) will flip the switch tonight on a 15-story outdoor “chocolate factory” sign, heralding the arrival of its Hershey's store in New York's Times Square (scheduled to open in December).

At 215 feet tall and 60 feet wide, this sign will be the largest permanent fixture ever constructed in Times Square. It features a whimsical version of the original Hershey's chocolate factory, complete with smokestacks, emulating the one in Milton Hershey's hometown.

Complete with 34 dimensional props, four steam machines, over 4000 chasing lights, 30 programmable gel lights, 56 neon channel letters, 14 front-lit signs and a number of other signage techniques, the sign will:

á feature an oversized Hershey's milk chocolate bar;

á light up a pyramid of Hershey's Kisses with colors that change with the seasons;

á showcase a Jolly Rancher candy wind sculpture;

á spout steam from the Hershey's cocoa cup;

á spin Breath Savers mints above the sidewalks of New York.

Visitors to the stire will be able to fill special Hershey's Times Square buckets with their favorite Hershey's candy selected from genuine factory machinery, and personalize the plumes on 7-oz. Hershey's Kisses chocolates that will be flashed on a massive Kisses plume message board on Broadway.

The Hershey's Times Square concept was created by ClearChannel Spectacolor (San Antonio, Texas), which is also responsible for project management and construction. Brand Integration Group (BIG), a unit of Ogilvy & Mather (New York), served as design consultants on the project in concert with JGA (Southfield, Mich.).

“The design concept was born out of imagining that Milton Hershey had also built a chocolate factory in Times Square in 1905,” said Brian Collins, executive creative director at Ogilvy & Mather's BIG. “We then imagined what that factory might have looked like as Hershey's grew throughout the century.”

“We are thrilled to be opening Hershey's flagship store in New York's Times Square, the gateway to the world,” said Hershey's senior vp and chief marketing officer Wynn Willard. “We couldn't think of a better place to showcase our brands than in Times Square, where both native New Yorkers and tourists from all over the world come together to shop and play.”