The Black Forest Built Kelly Clarkson a Bird

Kelly Clarkson wanted a bird. A small Brooklyn shop said she couldn’t have that specific bird. Then a region of Germany famous for wooden birds that pop out of tiny doors decided to help.

Saint Elmo’s Tourism, the Munich-based tourism team of Saint Elmo’s within the Serviceplan Group, worked with Schwarzwald Tourismus to build Clarkson a one-of-a-kind cuckoo clock. It’s hand-carved and hand-painted. Instead of “cuck-oo,” it calls “Kel-ly.”

A $15,000 bird and a public falling-out

The backstory played out on X in October. Clarkson visited Art of Play, a games and magic shop on Brooklyn’s Atlantic Avenue, and asked about Molly, a singing mechanical bird mounted on the wall. She later posted that staff treated her as though she couldn’t afford it and compared the visit to Julia Roberts getting turned away in “Pretty Woman.”

The store pushed back, saying Molly is its mascot, is attached to the wall and was never for sale. Clarkson replied with a photo of a $15,000 price tag. Millions of views and plenty of opinions followed.

The bird stayed in Brooklyn.

Naturally, the Black Forest felt responsible

Rather than pick a side, the region offered a solution. The Black Forest has been making mechanical birds for nearly three centuries, and the cuckoo clock is about as close to a regional logo as a piece of furniture can get.

“Kelly Clarkson was looking for a singing bird. Naturally, the Black Forest felt responsible,” says Hansjörg Mair, Managing Director of Schwarzwald Tourismus GmbH. “Our cuckoo has been making the same call for hundreds of years. But for Kelly, we’re making an exception.”

The clock comes with an invitation, too. Clarkson is welcome to pick it up in person in the Black Forest.

A regional mockumentary in 9:16

The activation runs as a social-first mockumentary under #KellyClock, with an entire region treating one pop star’s bird problem as a civic emergency. The clips start with a street survey in Triberg testing how well locals know Kelly Clarkson. They then move to the Rombach & Haas workshop in Schonach, where the clock is built, and end with its first “Kel-ly” call.

The series runs on Schwarzwald Tourismus’ Instagram, TikTok and YouTube channels. Black Forest Collective produced it.

Days, not months

Reactive ideas only work while the story is still going, and Saint Elmo’s Tourism moved fast. The team went from first idea to launch within a week.

“A good social media idea connects a current moment with an original, surprising response,” says Karó Oganesian, Director Social at Saint Elmo’s Tourism. “Our idea was to enter the story with a symbol that is instantly associated with the Black Forest.”

The trick here is restraint. The work stays out of who said what in Brooklyn and treats the whole saga as a craft problem with a woodcarver’s answer. Oganesian calls it a stunt that continues the story in its own way, and it ends with the region getting the last word in the feud, or at least the last chirp.

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Learn more

Saint Elmo’s
Schwarzwald Tourismus
Serviceplan Group