The archive · PR & Stunts · Marketing decision · 2021
Bombay Sapphire auctions an artwork to whoever feels it most, not whoever pays most
For International Gin & Tonic Day, Bombay Sapphire and sculptor Dan Lam auctioned art to whoever felt it most, measured by neuroaesthetic tech.
Bombay Sapphire
What it had to solve
Bombay Sapphire's wider mission is to democratise art and make it accessible to all, but a traditional auction hands every artwork to whoever can pay the most. After the pandemic ended its large star-studded art events, the brand wanted a more intimate way to prove its point.
How it works
The art world is famously inaccessible: a piece goes to whoever can pay most. Bombay Sapphire's wider mission is to democratise art and make it accessible to all, so the brand set out to hold an auction where money was not the currency.
Working with contemporary sculptor Dan Lam, the brand commissioned a bespoke artwork inspired by Bombay & Tonic. Bidders were fitted with neuroaesthetic technology — electrodes reading brainwaves, galvanic skin response detecting sweat and eye tracking measuring engagement — and viewed the piece one at a time so the technology captured their first organic reaction.
The artwork was awarded to the bidder with the strongest sensory reaction, with the winning 'bid' announced after International Gin & Tonic Day in October 2021. The owner was the person who felt the art most deeply, and D&AD's awards archive records the work.
Why it lands
- Measuring sensory reaction makes 'who deserves the art' a question of feeling rather than wealth, matching the brand's mission.
- Neuroaesthetic technology gives the event a tangible mechanism the press can explain and audiences remember.
- Commissioning Dan Lam ties the artwork to Bombay & Tonic, so the object and the brand's taste tell one story.
- A small one-lot auction fitted the post-pandemic shift from large gatherings to more intimate brand experiences.
What it did
The winning 'bid' was the deepest feeling: the artwork went to the person who reacted to it most strongly, announced after International Gin & Tonic Day in October 2021. The brand's democratise-art mission became a working mechanism, and the work is filed in the D&AD awards archive.
What you can take
To make people feel a belief rather than hear it, change the currency: an auction on measured emotional response turns 'art belongs to feeling' into a lived, newsworthy mechanism.
Since then
The Sensory Auction ran in New York around International Gin & Tonic Day on 19 October 2021 as part of Bombay Sapphire's wider art and creativity work, with the winning bidder announced a few days later. D&AD's awards archive records the concept but carries no media or sales metrics; the transferable idea is an auction whose currency is the measured emotional response rather than money.
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