Staged primarily to support their album Achtung Baby along with their subsequent album Zooropa , the tour visited arenas and stadiums from to Intended to mirror the group's new musical direction on Achtung Baby , the Zoo TV Tour departed from the band's previously austere stage setups by providing an elaborately staged multimedia spectacle, satirising television and media oversaturation by attempting to instill " sensory overload " in its audience.
To escape their reputation for being earnest and over-serious, U2 embraced a more lighthearted and self-deprecating image on tour. Zoo TV and Achtung Baby were central to the group's s reinvention. The tour's concept was inspired by disparate television programming, coverage of the Gulf War , the desensitising effect of mass media, and " morning zoo " radio shows.
The stages featured dozens of large video screens that showed visual effects, video clips, and flashing text phrases, along with a lighting system partially made of Trabant automobiles. The shows incorporated channel surfing , prank calls , video confessionals , a belly dancer , and live satellite transmissions from war-torn Sarajevo. On stage, Bono portrayed several characters he conceived, including the leather-clad egomaniac " The Fly ", the greedy televangelist "Mirror Ball Man", and the devilish "MacPhisto".
Unlike on other U2 tours, each of the Zoo TV shows opened with six to eight consecutive new songs before older material was played.
Comprising five legs and shows, [ a ] the tour began in Lakeland, Florida , on 29 February and ended in Tokyo, Japan , on 10 December The tour alternated between North America and Europe for the first four legs before visiting Oceania and Japan. Although the tour provoked a range of reactions from music critics, it was generally well received.
