The Nature of Grossology

The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum opened in the heart of Chicago’s Lincoln Park in October 1999, its mission to help people understand and appreciate nature and its relationship to the world. Despite a successful opening, by mid-2001 the Nature Museum’s public recognition and attendance had substantially diminished.

New museum administrators hoped to re-energize the museum with a quirky, three-month exhibit called Grossology: The Impolite Science of the Human Body. The exhibit offers a fun, slightly irreverent look at the science behind our bodily functions -- including toots and burps -- and fits perfectly with the museum’s mission.

Just two weeks before Grossology opened, the September 11 terrorist attacks occurred, an event that drastically affected museum attendance nationally. Fearing the Grossology exhibit could not succeed without aggressive, strategic public relations, but having limited funds for public relations support, museum officials contacted PCI for assistance. In a few short days, PCI developed a plan and hit the ground running.

With less than a week to prepare for the opening, PCI researched museum attendance trends, media opportunities, low-cost special events and evolving public sensitivities during a time of national mourning. An exhibit as unique as Grossology has inherent appeal, especially among young people, but attendance at local museums dropped precipitously after September 11.

Key objectives included:

• Raising public awareness of the Grossology exhibit and attracting new visitors;
• Educating the public about the family-friendly, educational and fun experiences available at the museum, highlighting the affordability and ease of visiting the museum, particularly for people living in the Lincoln Park area; and
• Making the Nature Museum a "must" visit during the holiday season.

PCI developed strategies that capitalized on the humorous and visual nature of the exhibit, which includes such experiences as a burp-o-meter; a slide that is a replica of the gastrointestinal tract; and a climbing wall made of warts, cysts, hairs and scabs.

PCI staff members donned a costume version of the exhibit’s key character, Nigel-Nose-It-All, an animatronic faucet that spouts facts about the nose. Nigel attended local events to promote the fun and educational exhibit at the museum. Nigel cheered runners, who passed near the museum during the Chicago Marathon and appeared at the city’s Columbus Day parade, passing out flyers, temporary Grossology tattoos and discount admission coupons.

Columbus Day efforts paved the way for increased media attention. PCI worked with museum spokespeople to coordinate interviews, including preparing them to take advantage of previously unexplored avenues, such as Mancow Mueller’s morning radio program. By November, attendance at the museum had doubled over the same period the previous year. PCI announced the attendance boom in a news release to bring even more attention to the museum and the popularity of the Grossology exhibit.

As word of the exhibit seeped into the psyche of local media, Grossology began gaining attention from national media as well. The Associated Press ran a story about the exhibit in early November that generated media requests from around the country.

One national media highlight was a 7-minute segment on the Today Show in which Nature Museum president Joe Shacter talked about Grossology with Katie Couric while sliding down the Gastrointestinal Slide. News about the museum’s increasing attendance and the public "buzz" about the exhibit brought new visitors and raised awareness of the museum as a growing contender in the Chicago museum scene.

More than 100,000 people visited the Grossology exhibit – 25,000 more than originally projected before September 11. Museum attendance in December 31, 2001, was three times more than the prior year. When most Chicago museums experienced an attendance decline of 11 percent in 2001, the Nature Museum’s attendance increased 8.3 percent.

Media interest grew, eventually encompassing major local and regional media, and garnering significant national media attention. Media relations generated more than 70 placements, with an estimated audience/circulation of 23.6 million. A high caliber of placements began with Chicago Sun-Times columnist Zay Smith discussing "gross" trivia and mentioning the Nature Museum exhibit in two of his columns, moved on to include feature stories in the Chicago Tribune, Daily Herald and Sun-Times. National media coverage began with the Associated Press and snowballed to include the Today Show and the Washington Post.