A STAR IS BORN

A Star Is Born Just Took Its Oscar Campaign to the Next Level With a Real-Life Ally Billboard in West Hollywood

Ladies and gentlemen, Ally.

Jan. 4, 2019

Courtesy Warner Bros.

If you thought you could make it through the home stretch before the Oscars without seeing another A Star Is Born meme, you would have thought wrong.

Influencer walls? So 2018. In 2019, we have entire billboard replicas of fictional characters from films that are nominated for heaps of awards. Yes, as Hollywood gears up for the official start of awards season (that would be the Golden Globes), Lady Gaga‘s face—well, technically her character Ally’s face—has been plastered up around town for your consideration.

In fact, a billboard identical to the one used to promote the fictitious singer from A Star Is Born was recently installed in front of the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles. It is located in just about the same spot as the CGI one in the film, just much lower to the ground. The one saving grace of this big advertisement for the pop star is that it at least looks like a real billboard because it is, rather than a surprisingly poorly rendered special effect like the one that can be seen in the movie, when Ally and Jackson are having one of their heart-to-hearts about decisions she needs to make regarding her career. That pink-and-blue gradient will probably attract enough of the masses to pose in front of the hotel that the once-populated bright-pink Paul Smith wall will be a ghost town at any moment.

As for who is responsible for the billboard’s construction outside of the Chateau, Twitter has some theories. Some fans of the YouTuber-slash-influencer Tyler Oakley thought he bought the wall, but he quickly clarified that he did not make the purchase, he just wanted to hop out of his boyfriend’s car to take a picture with it like many others who will find themselves driving along Sunset Boulevard only to rubberneck with a double take.

Anyway, you know how the old saying goes—there can be 100 people in a room and 99 might not believe your billboard is good enough to actually land you a spot on Saturday Night Live and a national tour, but all it takes is one cheeky campaign executive to make it a reality.