NEW YORK – Dominican-born Margarita Dominguez has transformed her body and those of a score of young people who work for her company into advertising billboards with the help of body painting and artist Fernello.
Dominguez, who moved to New York with her parents as a child, two years ago founded World of Margarita, a company that offers advertisers Walking Bill-bods.
“People really like it. They take photos of me. I think it’s a good idea to promote a product,” Dominguez, who goes to the gym two hours a day to keep herself in shape, told EFE.
She said she has never had any problems with her clients “because they see it as (a form of) artistic expression,” but in any case she only goes to places that have security to display her body-painted ads.
Dominguez, a concert pianist who has performed at venues such as Carnegie Hall, got the idea for this type of advertising vehicle when she was participating in a charity event in New York, where she got to know Fernello.
There, she noticed that the models who had their bodies painted got the attention of the public.
“I saw that people were looking and I liked it. That is art, people taking photos and then they upload them to the social networks. So, I thought that that could interest companies,” Dominguez said.
After that, she was one of Fernello’s models for another event and on that occasion she said: “You and I should place ads on my body. I want to do something different. Why don’t we try to get this idea going?”
Thus was born the company that in two years already has 20 young employees who each month do an average of three events, for which they make between $300 and $2,000.
Among the activities that the firm has already carried out is the 22nd birthday party of New York Knicks player Iman Shumpert, for which “they wore” painted-on T-shirts with the team colours, his number and name, but they have also advertised brands of beer and corporate logos.
“After the Knicks’ party, lots of people hired us,” Dominguez said with satisfaction.
Her next project is a video telling women how to keep themselves in shape that she hopes to have ready this month to post on her World of Margarita channel on YouTube.
“I want to teach other women to take care of their bodies. It doesn’t matter how old they are,” Dominguez said.
