There’s a Playboy Sign in the Design District
We recently explored the Dallas Design District and ran across a massive Playboy Bunny sign.
This Richard Phillips creation was funded by the magazine and originally installed in Marfa, Texas. The town and Departmenrt of Transportation viewed it as an advertisement and ordered it hauled away.
The 40-foot statue reappeared in 2014 on Riverfront Boulevard in the Design District. Apparently Dallas is less opposed to advertisements than our artsy West Texas counterparts.
A 40-foot Playboy “statue” in the Dallas Design District.
Richard Phillips Playboy Bunny sculpture and the Dallas skyline.
Prada vs. Playboy
Marfa is best known for the “The Prada Marfa,” a public art installation of a Prada boutique in the desert that even Beyonce has taken a picture in front of.
The Texas Department of Transportation determined that Playboy Marfa (a neon Playboy sign and a 1972 Dodge Charger) constituted “illegal outdoor advertising” and ordered it removed. This immediately raised the question why Prada Marfa did not constitute an outdoor advertisement as well.
“Prada Marfa” by Paul Joseph via Flickr under a Creative Commons license. Taken May, 2000.
According to City Lab, the difference between the two “art installations” is that Prada Marfa doesn’t bear any relation to the company and serves as a critique of it. Whereas the Playboy Marfa was commissioned by the magazine. However Prada donated the shoes for Prada Marfa, so this distinction falls flat.
TxDOT got around the illegal advertising issue by reclassifying Prada Marfa as a one-exhibit museum in 2014. This opened up the opportunity for Dallas to snatch up the sign/sculpture/whatever-it-is.
Their loss.
The “Playboy Marfa” statue in the Dallas Design District on a Saturday morning.
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