People have the same risk of getting Lyme disease in a city park as they do in rural or wooded areas. Global Lyme Alliance wanted New Yorkers to be aware,

We created a realistic looking, larger-than-life, movie-monster version of the extremely tiny black-legged female tick whose bite causes Lyme disease. We blew it up to gargantuan size and strapped a ticking bomb to its back, and placedit in the center of New York City’s Central Park, so the threat would feel alarming, urgent, and disturbing enough to drive home the message.

The work was placed in outdoor media spaces at entrances to major New York City parks so that the message could have the most relevant impact. It ran in the month of November 2021 for several weeks.

Art directional choices were driven by classic cinematic movie monster aesthetics, similar to Godzilla. We studied aerials maps of NYC, using stock photos of Central Park we created an apocalyptic environment so the gigantic tick could credibly threaten the city. We added famous landmarks so NYC would be unmistakable.

The sky was placed separately in post work for maximum dramatic effect.

The monster tick was modeled in 3D using Cinema 4D.