Bayer’s Crosses
Wednesday, 24th September 2008 by James Turnbull
Where would you expect to find the world's largest illuminated advertisement? With my years of experience in completely-useless "World's largest" facts, I would definitely assume it would be in America, perhaps in Times Square or maybe Las Vegas.
But I would, of course, be wrong. The largest illuminated advertisement in the world is found in the German city of Leverkusen, and is known as the Bayer Cross.
The 51 m diameter logo advertises the German chemical company Bayer AG, which has also given the world aspirin, heroin and methadone. Hanging between two 118 m steel towers, the 300 tonne advert has held its world record since 1958. Unfortunately, the giant logo fails to cast an appreciable shadow.
Nevermind, the logo is again represented at the company headquarters, this time flat on the ground.
Read more about Bayer at Wikipedia and see the giant advert at Flickr.
Thanks to volker lauterbach.
I think the shadow is rather good. You can see the way the letters are supported. Except… why does it look like the “A” is one from the bottom, when it should be at the top?
Bayer have quite a nice page of their own on it here: http://www.bayer.com/en/the-bayer-cross.aspx
Figured it out already! As this picture shows: http://en.structurae.de/photos/index.cfm?JS=68093 it’s actually constructed so that it appears the correct way round when viewed from either side. So the “A” I saw is actually an “R” superimposed with its mirror image! It’s quite elongated because of the angle of the sun, so what I thought was the top of the second letter is actually only half way up the first!