Bon Jovi “Have a Nice Day”:The Exact Location of the Famous Smiley Tattoo Scene
An envelope arrived at the address of our research team with the words Have A Nice Day written on it and an angry smiley face underneath, containing only a single sheet of paper with one task – find the scene from the famous music video by Bon Jovi.
Have A Nice Day is a song that was released in 2005 as the first single from the album of the same name, and the video that was playing on all music channels at the time became one of the iconic ones not only in the catalog of Bon Jovi but also in rock history.
Under the direction of Eric Hirshberg and the idea developed by the advertising agency Deutsch, the video presented a simple but striking concept: a red smiley with furrowed brows begins appearing across New York City, on walls, posters, streets,cars, basically everywhere as a symbol of quiet rebellion and attitude.
Despite the fact that the entire video was filmed in New York City, including the scene in which the band performs in the legendary Manhattan Ballroom, our task this time is the following: Can you locate the exact spot where Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora meet the girl with the smiley tattoo?
Challenge accepted, and Junkyard wouldn’t be what it is if we didn’t also include a few other interesting scenes from the video that we managed to locate.
Disclaimer 1:
We do Junkyard rock scene investigations purely out of curiosity and for fun — without any intention of exposing anyone or revealing anything sensitive. If you happen to visit any of the locations mentioned, please do not disturb the people or businesses there under any circumstances.
Disclaimer 2:
For some of you who live nearby or in the same town as these investigations, this may not seem very interesting. But Junkyard is far away — and for us, this is a challenge.
The Scene Investigation
- Single Case File: #2
- Video: Have A Nice Day
- Artist: Bon Jovi
- Scene: Where John and Richie meet the girl with smiley tattoo
The fact that we know the entire video was filmed in New York makes the situation much easier for us. Based on the two screenshots provided, we begin this investigation. As always, we start with a Google search and Google Reverse Image Search. Simply put, we cannot ignore the most powerful investigative tool that all of us have access to.
A pure AI search in Google does not give us the exact address, but it leads us to a number of similar images, one of which appears on the Facebook page BON JOVI: CAPTAIN KIDD AND THE KING OF SWING. The image is in full resolution and was taken during the filming itself, which gives us a better opportunity to uncover additional details.
One of those details is the sign on the yellow awning behind the two musicians, which caught our attention even when looking at the screenshots. It belongs to Serafina restaurants, which, according to further research, have several locations in New York. Since we know that most of the Have A Nice Day video was filmed in Manhattan, we start there and open Google Street View, which leads us to a match at the address: 210 W 55th St, New York, NY 10019, USA.
Scene Confirmation
As with any geolocation, the most important step is verification. For that, we will use screenshot number two. If you turn the view on Google Street View in the opposite direction from the Serafina restaurant and look further down the street, on the right side you will notice grey-tan colored pillars, which can also be seen in the screenshot above Jon Bon Jovi’s left shoulder.
And that’s it – the moment when Jon and Richie turn around to look at the girl with the smiley tattoo on her back was filmed right there on the sidewalk in the heart of Broadway.
More Scenes Located
Jon and Richie have always been “the duo” of the band Bon Jovi, but on the other hand Tico Torres and David Bryan are certainly the soul of the group. That is exactly why we will not neglect them in this investigation either. In other words, we managed to locate their scenes as well.
The scene in which Tico Torres walks out of a building onto the street was filmed in front of the Rhiga Royal Hotel at the address 151 W 54th St, New York, NY 10019, USA. Interestingly, the hotel practically hasn’t existed under the name Rhiga Royal since 2005, the same year the video itself was filmed. The building’s facade, the marquee with the Rhiga Royal sign, as well as the vertical PARKING advertisement were our main indicators in finding this location, despite the fact that the location itself has changed quite a bit over the past 20 years.
As for David Bryan, he also exits a hotel which is on the same street 0,1 miles East. But this time we have The Warwick Hotel, which can clearly be seen on the wall behind the famous keyboardist. After a quick Google search, we find the hotel’s location at 65 W 54th St, New York, NY 10019, United States. The fact that the hotel is still there only confirms the case.
Conclusion
Have a Nice Day is truly a small masterpiece of the urban style of music video filmmaking. When you watch the video, you get the feeling as if you have just walked through the entire Manhattan yourself. There are many interesting scenes, and they are a real treat for fans of geolocation as well as urban exploration.
In this investigation we were given a strict task and managed to find the main scene with Jon, Richie, and the girl, but we simply couldn’t resist including Tico and David as well. There are still more interesting places that could be explored, so if any of this interests you, or if you are also involved in this kind of search, write to us and give some more challenges!
If you like what we are doing here you can always check our previously conducted scene forensic cases.
