Trend
Times Square Billboard Trend: Your Face on the Big Screen
By the TrendMe team · Updated
The Times Square Billboard trend is a short vertical video that reveals your face, or your pet's, as a fashion-style portrait on a giant LED screen above a busy New York street at night. The AI version builds the whole scene from one photo. On TrendMe, upload a clear portrait and get a billboard video in a few minutes.
Seeing your own face on a screen the size of a building is a fantasy almost everyone has had at least once. The Times Square Billboard trend turns that fantasy into a ten-second clip you can post the same evening.
What happens in a typical video
The video opens tight on a glowing LED screen at night. Your portrait fills it, styled like a fashion or fragrance campaign. Then the camera slowly pulls back: the screen turns out to be high on a tower, and below it you see a crowded square, wet asphalt, umbrellas, neon reflections and yellow taxis.
The structure is always the same, which is part of why it works. Viewers know the reveal is coming, and the payoff is the scale: the face that looked like a normal close-up is suddenly ten stories tall.
Why it spreads
- Instant status joke. A billboard in New York is shorthand for "made it." Putting your face, your grandma's or your cat's there is funny because it is so obviously undeserved, or so obviously deserved.
- Readable without sound. The pull-back works on mute, which matters on a feed where many people scroll with the sound off.
- Easy to personalize. Birthdays, graduations, a new job, a pet's gotcha day: the billboard turns any small announcement into an event.
The format first spread through CapCut templates. The IN NEW YORK template, for example, takes one clip and drops it onto a city screen. The AI version replaces the template's fixed footage with a camera move generated around your own photo, so every result looks a little different.
How to make your own
Open the Times Square Billboard trend on TrendMe, upload one clear photo, and pick one of three directions:
- Early board: the clean fashion-poster look, with a confident portrait and a slow pull-back over the square.
- Rainy pullback: leads with rain streaking across the glowing screen and wet streets below.
- Pet star: your pet as the dead-serious face of a fashion campaign.
Generate an 8-second or 15-second vertical clip and download it without a watermark. If the face looks soft, try a sharper photo taken in daylight; the opening close-up shows every detail.
Posting tips
- Keep the first frame on the screen. The reveal is the whole video, so don't trim the pull-back.
- Pair it with a reason: "POV: your photo is on a Times Square billboard" works, but "my mom finally got her billboard" works better.
- Hashtags: #timessquarebillboard, #aibillboard, #timessquare, #aivideo.
- Say it is AI. Some viewers will ask if you actually booked a screen. A short note in the caption saves you the comments. See how to label AI videos on TikTok and Instagram.
Want more scene placements like this? Read how to put yourself in a TikTok trend with AI.
Times Square Billboard: CapCut template or TrendMe?
| CapCut template | TrendMe | |
|---|---|---|
| What you need | Your own video clips | One photo |
| Filming and editing | You film and fit clips to the template | None: the AI creates the whole scene |
| Pets, stunts, impossible scenes | Only if you can film them | Yes, from a single photo |
| Result | Depends on your footage | 9:16 MP4 with sound, no watermark |
Frequently asked questions
- Is the Times Square Billboard trend real footage?
- No. The scene is generated by AI from your photo. No screen in New York actually shows your face, so it is good practice to label the post as AI.
- What kind of photo looks best on the billboard?
- A sharp head-and-shoulders or waist-up portrait facing the camera, in even light, without sunglasses. The video opens close on the screen, so the face needs to hold up at that size.
- Can I put my dog or cat on the billboard?
- Yes. Pets work well as long as the whole head is sharp and the eyes are open. A very serious pet face on a fashion campaign is one of the funniest versions.
- Where did the Times Square Billboard trend start?
- It grew out of CapCut templates that place a photo on a giant city screen, such as the "IN NEW YORK" template. AI versions go further and rebuild the full night-street camera move from one still photo.