Someone has been projecting unauthorized Samsung ads on a Center City high-rise apartment building
The ads on the 2400 Chestnut St. building are being projected from a white van a block away.
Samsung, the South Korean electronics corporation with a current market cap of $263 billion, appears to be going cheap with its Philadelphia advertisements.
In February, an audio visual crew working out of a nondescript white van began projecting ads for Samsung’s new Galaxy S25 phone on the side of the Center CIty high-rise apartment building 2400 Chestnut, as first reported by the Fitler Focus.
But the property manager for 2400 Chestnut told The Inquirer that the ads were unauthorized, with no one seeking approval to display them on the building.
Samsung did not respond to a request for comment.
The production company subcontracted for the “projection mapping” ads is ATD Audio Visual, based in New York, as reported in the Fitler Focus. To display the ads, the ATD crew parks its van and sets up about a block away from the building, on the Center City side of the Chestnut Street bridge.
“We are a rental house that’s all,” ATD said in an email response to several questions from The Inquirer.
In Philadelphia, anyone conducting an outdoor advertisement must acquire a license from the city’s Department of Licenses and Inspections. There are some exceptions, including “on-site public art,” but it is unclear where projected advertisements fall under L&I’s regulations, or whether authorization is legally necessary.
L&I did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
This style of unconventional, attention-grabbing, and often low-budget advertisement is referred to as “guerrilla marketing.” Samsung has used it frequently over the past few years, including with other Galaxy S25 projected ads at the London Eye ferris wheel in January.
It isn’t the only major name doing so — Beyoncé projected advertisements for her Grammy-winning album Cowboy Carter on the face of several New York City museums last year, without authorization.