The 11m gold cube in Central Park was replaced by a giant Velveeta box

June 2024 · 2 minute read


I keep seeing stories on Twitter that are impossible to tell apart from parody accounts like The Onion,NY Times Pitchbot and Reductress. The 11m gold cube in Central Park with its own security detail skirted that line between reality and parody. When the eight foot Velveeta box replaced it, I got really confused. Although the giant gold cube was probably a viral lead-in to this Velveeta Box, it was promoting its own sh-t, something less valuable and versatile than Velveeta. The foot and a half solid gold cube, made by German artist Niclas Castello, was promoting Castello’s branded cryptocurrency, called the Castello Coin. The Velveeta Box is obviously an advertisement for this “liquid gold” cheese which can be eaten with nachos, macaroni, soups and various casseroles. I’m going to quote AdAge here because they have a good brief writeup.

Yesterday, a pure-gold cube worth $11.7 million made headlines when it mysteriously appeared in New York City’s Central Park accompanied by its own security detail. Today, a different block of gold replaced it—a cheesier rendition.

Inspired by German artist Niclas Castello’s golden art piece, Velveeta dropped an eight-foot box of cheese in the exact same spot, the Naumburg Bandshell. The box is 1400 times larger than a typical supermarket box of the cheese product. It’s also protected by security guards.

The activation is inspired by Velveeta’s tagline “liquid gold” and pays homage to the brand’s recent revamp, which aimed to elevate the product as a symbol for luxurious, indulgent lifestyles. In a mystery of its own, the eight-foot box in Central Park nixed the new packaging for the previous version.

[From AdAge]

So did Kraft commission that art piece? That’s the logical conclusion. There’s also the possibility that they just acted quickly to capitalize on the gold cube hype, but if that was the case how did they know when the cube would be removed? I wonder if Kraft will do a tie-in to a SuperBowl commercial. They now have an all-caps “missing: Velveeta Box” announcement with a sweepstakes for a year’s supply of Velveeta and an email address. Are they going to move the thing around the country and reward the first person who finds it in each location? This was a pretty smart promotional stunt. They’ll get coverage again when this box turns up at the next place. Now I’m hungry for mac and cheese.

They recently gave away a locker of queso.

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