Times Square Gets Ready to Ring in 2009

Together with former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Disney Corporation helped turn Times Square from a rather shady part of town into a major tourist hub. New buildings facing the square are now required by law to boast illuminated signage, and the density of neon in the area rivals the Las Vegas Strip.

“No advertiser in Times Square wants to be an also-ran,” says Meric Adriansen, managing partner of systems and engineering at D3 LED. Each new sign in the square has some form of bragging rights, he says. The Walgreens signage, completed in November, is the largest outdoor-advertising space in the world. The sign wraps three sides of the building where the ball drops every year, featuring a 17-story continuous display of video and animation produced by 12 million LEDs and numerous giant plasma video screens.