Staring Contest
- Brand
- Dalí Museum
- Year
- 2014
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Entertainment
- Mechanic
- Other
- Platform
- App
Objective
The Dalí Museum needed to draw attention and foot traffic to its special exhibition on Andy Warhol, and to give its digital audience — including members — a reason to engage with the museum's brand between visits, in a way that stayed true to Dalí's own surrealist sensibility.
Solution
Open the free app on an iPhone or iPad and pick an opponent from a gallery of characters, including Dalí himself and an Andy Warhol stand-in. Hold the phone up at face height and lock eyes with the portrait on screen while the front camera tracks your gaze, waiting for the moment you blink or look away. The opponent barely moves — at most a faint twitch, like a sly flicker in Dalí's mustache — and never blinks first, so every match ends the same way: you lose. The joke lands because you're really just staring down a photograph, and there's no way to win.
Results
Museum attendance during the run of the Warhol exhibition rose at least 40% year over year, and the show — originally set to close April 27, 2014 — was extended through June 1 due to demand.
- 1
Players download The Dalí Staring Contest free from the App Store on iPhone or iPad, reached via the promo site staringapp.com.
- 2
The app states the game's single rule: don't blink and don't look away.
- 3
Players pick an opponent from a roster of portraits — Salvador Dalí himself, an Andy Warhol lookalike, and other surprise characters — and can return to this screen after a round to try a different one.
- 4
Holding the phone up to their face, the player lets the front camera track their eyes, starting a staring duel against the chosen portrait on screen.
- 5
The opponent's portrait holds still but occasionally makes a barely perceptible move, such as a twitch of Dalí's mustache, to throw off the player's concentration.
- 6
The round ends the moment the player blinks or looks away; since the opponent is only a photograph, it never blinks first, so the player always loses.
