Our Heroes Are Back: The Night Watch Returns

Read the campaign story

ING and JWT Amsterdam brought figures from Rembrandt’s Night Watch into a Dutch shopping centre for Our Heroes Are Back in 2013. The activity promoted the Rijksmuseum’s reopening and a sponsor-supported admission invitation. Contemporary coverage describes the filmed performance alongside supporting print, digital and internal communication rather than treating the video as the whole campaign.

Creative team Rik Eysink Smeets and Nick van Beijnen explained the literal return of the painting’s figures as their central idea. The sources establish that mechanism and the sponsor’s role, not an independently measured increase in attendance. This was a staged production, not a template for an unannounced public pursuit or a reason to expose bystanders to frightening or hazardous activity.

Editorial interpretation: the reopening of a building can seem administrative to people who are not already interested. Bringing a recognisable part of the collection into an everyday setting makes the news concrete. The creative bridge is between what returns and where people encounter it. A small adaptation can use that bridge without reproducing the scale or shock of the original, provided the audience can understand what is being invited back into view.

Editorial interpretation: sponsorship becomes clearer when the sponsor enables an identifiable public benefit. The performance attracts attention, but the practical invitation gives that attention somewhere useful to go. Those two roles should remain connected. If the audience remembers the spectacle but cannot identify the event, access conditions or sponsor’s contribution, the campaign may have produced entertainment without making the reopening easier to discover or attend.

Choose a recognisable element with explanatory value

Select an object, character or scene that helps explain the institution’s offer, not merely an icon that looks impressive in photographs. Provide enough context for people who do not already recognise it. A public invitation should not depend entirely on cultural prior knowledge. Test whether an unfamiliar viewer can understand the connection between the performance and the event without needing a long explanation afterward.

Make surprise compatible with consent and safety

An unexpected artistic encounter can be delightful without resembling a real emergency. Use a clearly permitted venue, visible performance framing and trained staff where appropriate. For early research, a storyboard or recorded tabletop scene is sufficient. Avoid chasing, realistic threats, blocked exits or filming identifiable bystanders without a suitable permission process. The creative objective is curiosity, not involuntary fear or loss of control.

Give the invitation the same clarity as the scene

State what is opening, when it can be visited and which access conditions apply. Make the sponsor’s enabling role concrete rather than simply adding a logo to a popular artwork. Ensure the information remains available after the performance has ended. Evaluate whether people can act on it, since memorable footage alone does not show that the campaign helped anyone make a realistic visit plan.

A small test for another brief

Proposed adaptation: storyboard a fictional local exhibition announcement in which illustrated objects step out of a poster and arrange themselves into a clear opening invitation.

Measure recognition of the exhibition theme, recall of the opening information and understanding of the sponsor’s role. Compare the animated concept with the straightforward poster. Ask whether the scene feels welcoming to someone unfamiliar with the art, rather than assuming surprise automatically widens cultural participation.

Stop if the idea depends on threatening bystanders, misleading people about an emergency or hiding essential access details behind the spectacle.

• Use original illustrations or verified public-domain material with appropriate attribution.
• Test privately on a screen, with no live public stunt.
• Include fictional but complete access details and a plain alternative poster.