At the heart of Times Square in New York City, only a few miles from Coco Gauff’s attempt to defend her U.S. Open title, a 200-foot-tall version of the star tennis player whipped her racket toward the city’s most famous intersection, her shot piercing the screen.

Or, at least, that’s what two Las Vegas-based companies were trying to make it look like.

Spotlight Outdoor Ads and Company 8 Ad Group worked to create the 3D trick-of-the-eye for American Eagles’ “Live Your Life” campaign, which also featured Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence. The ad, which ran through Sunday on the same screen which counts down on New Years, had more than 250,000 people walk by it daily.

“We’re definitely fighting for eyeballs,” said Company 8 President Ivan Flores Merino, noting the dense advertising plastered throughout Times Square. “(The 3D animation) helps tremendously to catch the audience’s attention. And just having that One Times Square screen being front and center, it was a plus.”

Instead of placing Lawrence and Gauff flatly on the screen, Company 8 and Spotlight Outdoor Ads added faux walls and a ceiling to make it look like the athletes were in a room. With some clever shadows on the animated barriers, the balls look like they pop off the screen.

Having the shots of the athletes already recorded, it was a quick turnaround for Merino and his team. They completed the animation required for the effect in three to four weeks, he said.

One of the largest considerations Spotlight dealt with was the sheer scale of the screen, which is the most viewed piece of outdoor signage in America, said Jay Campbell, the company’s director of sales for the western region.

“We’re always putting every ounce of effort into every campaign that we get,” Campbell said. “So it’s not to say that there’s going to be a lack of effort for a smaller deal but, naturally, the fact that we knew that this was such a high-profile unit, we made sure that it was all hands on deck.”

While it wasn’t their first time working on 3D ads, which have become increasingly popular since 2021, Merino said it was the company’s first outside of Las Vegas. Spotlight has done a series of ads on the face of Lids’ flagship store on the Strip, taking advantage of its wrap-around screen.

Merino said his company is excited to bring additional projects to the Strip, adding that more 3D work will be coming from his team.

“This ad campaign showcases that Company 8 Ad Group, powered by Spotlight Outdoor Ads, are together at the forefront of innovative, 3D anamorphic advertisements on a national scale,” wrote Spotlight President Jeremie Watkins in announcing the company’s work on the campaign.

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