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
Chromie Squiggle #6339
Simple and easily identifiable, each squiggle embodies the soul of the Art Blocks platform. Consider each my personal signature as an artist, developer, and tinkerer. Public minting of the Chromie Squiggle is permanently paused. They are now reserved for manual distribution to collectors and community members over a longer period of time. Please visit OpenSea to explore Squiggles available on the secondary market.
Emily
Ugh! I'm Emily. My friends describe me as despicable and tantalizing. I like to listen to Ace of Base while grooming. Don't judge me. We can be friends, but keep the ultra purrsonal stuff to yourself, please.
Domestic - 2017
“Domestic is the manifestation of the cultural patriarchy in my home. The wooden "woman's" tragedy of false desire. It was done in a moment of breakup. The hollow 3d body & its lost eyes, invites you to fill up. Trying to reach out, encumbered and wrapped in its own fragility, the new mother rises."
Crypto Toy Coin
This piece represents the creation of a new "Visual Toy", a term created by me to encompass my unique and exclusive GIF-Arts. The latter, "Crypto Toy Coin" is the only and first in the cryptocurrency theme. In it I represent the fast-paced world of finance in the virtual environment, the Internet with its universe of colors and infinite visual impact, an optimistic and exciting future, a world of possibilities that opens before us. These "Visual Toys" invite you to imagine, that is their function, that is the game. The ultimate goal is that you imagine, that it is you who gives it meaning. There are no good or bad answers, just the projection of each one. I've only created the trigger, the piece where you can project your imagination and let it fly.
Art Is The Currency of the Infinite
This still-life, titled after one of Pablo Picasso's infamous quotes, was made solely using 3D softwares and apps, in an attempt to bring this often forgotten artistic genre into the 21st century through the use of new artistic mediums and technologies. This piece is also an invitation to meditate on the role of "value" throught the ages and how it's been radically altered by the coming into existence of technologies and concepts like cryptocurrencies and digital scarcity.