When a 26-year-old Elliott Erwitt photographed Puerto Rico for an ad campaign in the 1950s, the place still held a sense of the exotic for American travelers.
But now, Puerto Rico was struggling to differentiate itself from other Caribbean destinations. To create a new set of images that recaptured its cultural allure, we asked Mr. Erwitt to reprise his assignment. But no longer would he receive a small credit line, like he did in the original ads. Now, after a distinguished career, we gave him top billing.
Blurring the lines between commercial photography and fine art, the campaign launched with gallery openings in New York City and San Juan, where Elliott’s latest photos of Puerto Rico were introduced to the public.
The seepuertorico.com website housed galleries of Elliott’s photos of the islands, past and present, identifying the exact location where each photo was taken and often including video or audio clips of Elliott describing the moment. Within weeks of the campaign launch, the site topped over one million visitors, and in the first three months, site traffic increased 1300%. And when any visitor spent more than five minutes looking at the photos, the site would serve up hotel and airline promotions, making booking a trip an even easier proposition.
There was much discussion about creating a coffee table book that could sit alongside Elliott’s other photography books, but the campaign had been so successful, the clients decided buying more media to run the ads again was the better investment.