
Maryellis Bunn and the Museum of Ice Cream - wallflower
http://nymag.com/selectall/2017/10/museum-of-ice-cream-maryellis-bunn.html
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abalone
_> “The old traditional experiences — take museums, for example — are the
institutions that become more and more archaic,” she told me. “They just
haven’t been able to reformulate for the shifts in what people are interested
in.”_

Like diving in plastic sprinkles? This quote will not age well, much like her
vision of our future: cultural and community institutions replaced by
cathedrals of narcissism.

 _> The Museum of Ice Cream is not innately entertaining, nor is it especially
educational... The experience was, above all, a novelty, and a place to be
both online and off._

It's the daytime equivalent of a see-and-be-seen nightclub, only without the
social interaction or alcohol.

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samsolomon
While shallow, I think it's a brilliant business idea.

Say what you will about Instagram, but I think it has vastly increased the
business value of interestingness. There's a reason Applebees and many generic
chain restaurants are struggling—they are boring. If you have a restaurant
with cool artwork or an interesting vibe, it's more likely to succeed.

It's cyclical. People see interesting place on Instagram and want to go to
this interesting place. People take selfies there and more people want to go.

Whether it's a colorful museum or a fancy coffee shop, interestingness has
business value.

~~~
grabcocque
The key is to quickly drive attendance by grabbing the transient eye of social
media darlings long enough to make a quick buck before they get bored, the
mainstream media catches on, and the inevitable backlash begins.

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Sujan
A few weeks ago a similar place opened here in Berlin: A former hipster shoe
store was converted to an "Oreo popup" for a weekend.

[https://mitvergnuegen.com/2017/oreo-eroeffnet-seien-
ersten-p...](https://mitvergnuegen.com/2017/oreo-eroeffnet-seien-ersten-pop-
up-shop-in-berlin)

It was mostly empty besides some installations, art, drawings on the walls and
a oreo packaging filled tunnel that lead to ball pool with white balls. Of
course you could also get free Oreo cookies and take lots of photos with the
different "installations" placed around the room like a giant Oreo cookie or
glas vases filled with Oreos.

It was packed all day. As some people started absuing the free Oreos (go in,
get cookies, come out, dump in bag, go in ...) they had to add security at the
door.

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butterfi
This "museum" (if the word "museum" meant "advertising ploy") is to culture
what the Kardashians are to culture. Shallow and disposable.

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ghostbrainalpha
As someone who works for an "accredited" museum, it does hurt to see our
valued word rendered meaningless.

But this article also has a valuable lesson for us. She is giving people what
they want. People really want to have meaningful interactions with the spaces
they pay to visit. Institutional museums really have need to up their
interactivity game to the point so that they provide much more than a "photo
opportunity". That is the only answer to this type of chesse.

But as it stands, many younger people feel they get more value from taking a
picture next to _a giant sandwich_ , than they do from something like the Met.
The Facebook likes they get from that picture reinforce this belief even more.

What if the next time you got an "audio tour" it wasn't just an audio
recording, but a game with a giant leader board in the front lobby? Museums
need to give customers something they can share to feel special too!

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AlphaWeaver
I think the title of "The Millennial Walt Disney" might be overselling it a
bit.

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terrabytes
I remember seeing them on Yelp a couple of months ago and they had terrible
ratings (1 star). It seems to have jumped up to 3 stars now, but a
surprisingly large number of them were written in the last couple of weeks.
Hmm...

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leeoniya
why is this on HN front page? :(

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Alex3917
Because she's a brilliant entrepreneur who has invented something new and
interesting.

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grabcocque
I know it's easy to hate on hipsters, but JFC I think this article shaved five
years off my life through the sudden burst of unbridled rage it induced in me.

~~~
deadmetheny
Say what you will about this, but you gotta admit that it's perfectly catered
to the Instagram selfie crowd, and she's definitely going to make a pretty
decent amount of money off this idea before it's all said and done. It hits
all the points: unicorns, bright colours, and twee feminism. Not my thing, but
kudos to her for making it work.

