Who’s responsible? Ken Reashor, god of sidewalks, 490-4855.
Remarks: Last week, with university classes about to start, some marketing genius at Eastlink decided to paint hundreds of ads on city sidewalks all over town, without asking permission, applying for permits or ponying up some kick-back money, a la bus stop ads. Reashor had hoped the hurricane would wash the ads away, but since it didn’t he ordered Eastlink to pressure wash the ads, and work started Monday. For more on outside advertising, see here.
This article appears in Sep 9-15, 2010.
That was really stupid on Eastlink’s part. Do your homework next time. It’s unlikely advertising on a sidewalk is really going to boost sales, students probably would have hooked up their cable anyway.
Everytime I see one of those ads I want to stick a knife in my leg, and that’s how I’ll always think of E-link and its products. Way to go, assholes.
We have appreciated both the positive and constructive feedback received from the community. The biodegradable, non permanent, and washable chalk based ads have been removed as of Wednesday evening September 8th.
Dan MacDonald
EastLink Marketing
Pure genius. It’s hard enough to get rid of graffiti, without businesses fostering the belief that it’s okay. What next, flood the North End and Commons with teams of “marketers”. They swarm innocent bystanders, kick holy hell out of them, and then, here’s the kicker, GIVE them cellphones. That should be good for a year-end bonus, huh?
Actually, it’s a brilliant marketing idea that likely generated a number of sales for them. It’s not like people saw it and went “Wow, I can’t believe they would do that. Because of this, I’m going with Bell instead.”
It was, however, very poorly executed.
Genius, Eastlink! Even if it is illegal and if they had to pay some fines, it might actually turn out to be worth it depending on how much more business they got.
Corporate graffiti, that’s all we fucking need!