Vintage Department Store Takes Chicago's Atomic History Into The Retro Sky
Utilizing various vintage images, Chicago's atomic history is re-imagined in this visual mash-up.
A sampling of vintage items from Chicago's Broadway Antique Market
Chicago's Broadway Antique Market embraces the city's rich atomic legacy to educate and engage it's growing customer demographic: The young.
My job is to re-introduce history into a 21st century retail landscape. But it almost takes a bomb to get people to look up from their iPhones, set down their Starbucks and smell the vintage.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, USA, May 20, 2015 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Depending upon your age, the word "Chicago" can evoke various responses...— Danny Alias
Millennials may think Hip Hop music and craft beer. But Baby Boomers are more likely to recall Chicago's rich atomic history. It's a generational disconnect.
Ground zero of the atomic age began, of course, at the University of Chicago through the work of Enrico Fermi. Yet for many this is a long lost, if not forgotten, piece of history.
Now Chicago's Broadway Antique Market (BAM!) embraces this legacy in a unique mash-up of imagery. Never a stranger to controversy, BAM has a 20 year history of utilizing vintage photography, graphics and video to re-introduce antiques or more accurately "vintage" to an ever growing demographic: The young.
Says BAM co-owner, Danny Alias: "Today we sell most of our retro pieces to clients under the age of 30. In fact many are the children of the customers we developed when we first began selling antiques back in 1988. The market has evolved and how we attract new customers needed to change with it."
BAM's previous marketing campaigns have ranged from electronic dance music videos of space aliens shopping the vast vintage department store to a Justin Bieber style love song-- all of it targeting a younger, more retro-geared customer base.
The concept seems to be working. In the last month alone BAM has scored two notable hits: Lily K, an artist signed to Jay Z's Tidal Music service recently filmed part of a new music video in the store. Equally exciting, BAM has provided Mid Century Modern Mad Men era props for the new Spike Lee film "Chiraq" now being filmed in Chicago.
"In terms of marketing, all these things are connected" says Alias. "My job is to re-introduce history into the 21st century retail landscape. Yes, we're a very large antique store selling Mid Century objects and furnishings, but we do not market ourselves as such. Through campaigns like "Atomic Chicago" we're attempting to both educate our younger customers and re-introduce them to retro. Millennials are smart, curious and they want to learn. But let's be honest, it almost takes a bomb to get people to look up from their iPhones, set down their Starbucks and smell the vintage."
Hence: "Welcome to Chicago, Home of the Atomic Bomb..."
Danny Alias
Broadway Antique Market
773-743-5444
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