24/11/2021 Macy's iconic Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons are now NFTs

The non-fungible token craze has made its way to the annual Turkey Day parade.

Macy’s auctioning 10 limited NFTs which will benefit Make-A-Wish Foundation

Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images, FILE

Macy's is turning some of the iconic balloon designs from its annualThanksgivingDay parades into non-fungible tokens (NFTs), some of which will be auctioned to benefit the Make-A-Wish foundation.

NFTs have becomeadopted by the mainstreamand are especially popular amongbudding digital art collectors.

Macy's first-ever NFT series is launching in celebration of its 95th annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which is returning in full-swing this year after pandemic restrictions curbed some of its excitement last year.

"As we celebrate our rich legacy, 95 years in the making, we were struck by the unique place the Parade holds in pop culture, always evolving and reflecting the greatest characters and artists of each generation," Will Coss, the executive producer of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, said in a statement.

"To celebrate that history, we created art in a new form through NFTs that would bring the magic of the Parade to a new generation while raising funds for our partner Make-A-Wish," Coss added.

The NFTs are based on Macy's archival content and balloons that have appeared over the parade's nine-decade history. They are being designed by a digital art agency REOMETRY.

Starting last Friday and going through Nov. 30, Macy's is auctioning 10 of its unique NFT designs, and 100% of the proceeds generated from these 10 digital collectibles will go toward benefitting Make-A-Wish, a group that grants life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses.

Macy's is also dropping an additional 9,500 free generative NFTs, featuring past parade balloon designs, that will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis starting at 10 a.m. ET on Thanksgiving Day. The auction and NFT drop can be accessed at macys.com/NFT.

Bids on some of the 10 NFTs up for auction have already topped $5,000 as of Tuesday.

The NFTs are powered by the platform Sweet and built on the Polygon blockchain. Even if the free NFTs are sold by fans in the future, 10% of any sales generated will be donated to Make-A-Wish, in perpetuity, using the blockchain technology.

NFTs have exploded in popularity amid the pandemic, creating an entirely new marketplace in recent years for digital collectors. Many recent NFT sales have garnered eye-brow raising sums. An NFT of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s first-ever tweet fetched some $2.9 million in March. A collage by digital artist Mike Winkelmann, known as Beeple, fetched a whopping $69 million when it was auctioned as an NFT by Christie’s.

Arts

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/macys-iconic-thanksgiving-day-parade-balloons-now-nfts/story?id=81348581

Interesting NFTs
#56151
By OthersideDeployer
Mr. Sirious
Hi-ya! My name's Mr. Sirious. I once peed on Princess Diana's cat. They had it coming. I once got in a fight with a rabbit, and won. This will be an amewsing friendship.
Iconic Crypto Queen
(Virtual) blondes have more fun, right? #iconic ICONIC (Adj.): of, relating to, or having the characteristics of an icon. Widely recognized and well-established.
Playtime At Le Mans
Playtime At Le Mans | From [The Room] series A creation which focuses on minimalism and the beautiful characteristics of the famous Le Mans Porsche 917K. Do you prefer the relaxed day cycle of the Gulf Blue... or the more engaging and exciting Gulf Orange. What mood are you in? Will you win over your imagination. The cycle of time lives on...
Who Is The Creator 2
The idea for this piece was borne out of a tweet of mine that caused a bit of a stir. I’d posted a link to a blog article I’d written a number of months previous titled ‘Who is the Creator’ discussing various types of creative collaborations and why I hire people to work on my animations. It generated a lot of debate around creation and attribution with the community split on whether it’s right or wrong for an artist to hire other professionals to help them realize their art projects. I decided to push the boundaries even further and see how the cryptoart community responded. What if I quite literally had nothing to do with the physical or digital elements of the work other than coming up with the concept and coordinating it? I decided there was one artist in the space who could add huge value to this idea on levels that none other could and so I gathered my courage and contacted the great José Delbo to ask him if he’d be interested in a very unique collaboration. I explained to him that to make this piece ‘work’ he couldn't have any say in what I produced and moreover, he wouldn’t even be allowed to see the animation until it was dropped on MakersPlace. To my surprise, Mr Delbo agreed to my proposal. The animation tells the story of the creative process, which includes my roles as writer, director, and producer working with a team and making edits and changes ‘in real time’. The dialogue between myself and my ‘hired guns’ plays out in front of the viewer. The music written for the piece adds to the nostalgia of the comic book superhero theme but other elements such as the snapping and kicking of the pencil and the signing of my signature at the bottom incorporates further layers and challenges the viewer to ask important questions, such as, is the ‘Art’ the final animation (the creation) or is the ‘Art’ the concept/credit for the creation itself?