Installation Advertising Reaches New Heights with Netflix's Chemical X Billboard

In the age of streaming wars and content overload, how do you make your show stand out? Netflix found the answer through installation advertising that quite literally gave viewers a new kind of high. To promote the second season of "How To Sell Drugs Online (Fast)," the streaming giant partnered with legendary artist Chemical X to create a billboard that was anything but conventional – a 1,000 kg mosaic installation comprised of 130,000 fake ecstasy pills.

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Billboards don't usually conjure ambition and complexity; they're often seen as marketing safebets, especially for new releases in film and TV. The comfortable perk of 24/7 exposure can lead to billboard marketing becoming just another link in the tried-and-proven systematization of big companies: commission, design, print, repeat.
 
Although Netflix has risen to behemoth status, it isn't one to give in to that kind of inertia. That's why the company approached rule-breaker Chemical X to craft an original campaign for "How To Sell Drugs Online (Fast)." Together with Basa Studio's expertise in artist-brand matchmaking, they took the traditional billboard concept and gave it steroids.
 
Or better said: MDMA.
 

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For ten days, tens of thousands of people passing by Bikini Berlin met the gaze of a three-meter tall branded art installation of the show's protagonist Moritz, played by Maximilian Mundt. Placed in the middle of this commercial plaza, the young MDMA dealer's face was front and center of a mural designed by Chemical X. By his side: the outskirts of his empire. Gradually expanding pupils, spreading under the influence of drugs.

Crowned with a laurel wreath, Mundt's portrait evoked images of Julius Caesar, or even an Orthodox Christian Jesus. Was he looking down at us from his pedestal? Or up at us, looking out from the pill-made prison he himself built?

The ten-meter wide mural comprised almost entirely of colored fake ecstasy pills created a striking juxtaposition – legal art mimicking illegal substances in a bold installation advertising campaign that couldn't be ignored.

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When Netflix needed hands in Berlin to execute this ambitious installation advertising project, Basa Studio connected them with our associates at Old Yellow. With a portfolio featuring stories-high street art and transformative interior design for clients like Motel One and Adidas, these Berlin creatives were perfect for the challenge.
 
"Is it possible?" remembers Ludwig Stender, Old Yellow's project manager, recounting his initial stream of consciousness, "How does it work? What happens if it doesn't work?" It was the first time Old Yellow would undertake a task not planned by them. But as the questions rushed by, the excitement of a new creative summit grew as well.

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The execution of this installation advertising masterpiece was a feat of engineering and artistic precision. The mural was divided into five two-meter wide sheets and constructed with three layers: an aluminum Dibond sheet, mainly used for advertising signs; an acrylic sheet with carvings to fit the pills; and another exterior acrylic sheet to keep the pills in place.
 
"Chemical X was pretty clever, actually," said Ludwig. "He printed the whole image on the dibond, so that helped us see where each colored pill goes."

The show's pill fabricator, candy maker Rock & Roll Bonbonmanufaktur Ehrenfeld, produced the pills for the artwork. The key challenge was color matching – each pill had to match one of 20 specific shades required for the mural.

Wolf Schiebel, the pills' fabricator, admits that the color part was the hardest. "35 kilos of pigment was used in total – which is what a normal painter uses in more than ten years."

Once the colored pill mix was ready, it was left in the oven to dry for three hours, then placed into a high-speed grinder. Then came the shaping: one by one, a five-ton iron and steel press gave shape to each pill in just 0.8 seconds. Between 3,500 and 4,500 pills were produced in one hour.

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While the entire Chemical X Netflix billboard contains 130,000 fake ecstasy pills, just covering Moritz's face required 46,000. That meant four people working eight hours a day for five days. The total number of people placing pills in the artwork was much higher, peaking on the weekend right before the installation, with 16 people working simultaneously.
 

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With the final pill in place, the ambitious marriage of art and marketing was complete. But the task wasn't done: it was time to install it.
 
"We had to consider how to lift these big, very flexible plaques," explained Ludwig, "from a lying position to a standing position without bending them, because otherwise all the pills would pop out and fall off!".
For that, we rented a heavy-duty crane to carefully lift each 100 kg plaque onto the artwork's stand, which featured the Netflix logo.

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Season 2 of "How To Sell Drugs Online (Fast)" premiered on July 21st to rave reviews, holding an 84% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and eventually being greenlit for a third season. The Chemical X Netflix billboard didn't just advertise a show – it became a cultural talking point, picked up by major media outlets like Designboom and spreading far beyond the physical installation's location in Berlin.

Looking back, Ludwig recounts his initial hesitation at the scale of the work. But following six intense weeks, he finally had the chance to relax and enjoy the results, visiting the finished piece with his girlfriend and family.

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Projects of this magnitude highlight why brands need specialists like Basa Studio to coordinate between artists and commercial objectives. The Chemical X Netflix billboard required expert management of multiple stakeholders, materials, and technical challenges within a tight six-week deadline.
 
Installation advertising at this scale demands more than just creative vision – it requires the ability to adapt quickly, coordinate multiple teams, and solve unforeseen challenges. From matching exact color pigments to engineering a structure that could safely display a thousand kilograms of precisely placed pills, every element needed expert oversight.

The impact speaks for itself: an unforgettable branded experience that transcended traditional advertising to become an art event in its own right. When brands want to create something truly revolutionary in the public space, they need the perfect synthesis of artistic vision and professional execution – exactly the kind of partnership that Basa Studio specializes in facilitating.

For brands looking to create their own boundary-pushing installation advertising, the lesson is clear: ambitious concepts require ambitious expertise. But with the right team orchestrating the collaboration between artists and brands, even the most trippy ideas can become spectacular reality.