On his nice blog Aquatic Existence, Matt Ross has a post called “This really annoys me” about some guerilla marketing by Chevrolet he found on some Toronto sidewalks (the above picture is his). He writes, in part:
Recently, Chevrolet began running commercials for a variety of vehicles using a character named Johnny. In each episode Johnny tells the host the right way to operate a vehicle and be a responsible driver, in a cheesy 1950’s sort of way. The commercials are mildly amusing and show some creativity. They have since been extended to billboards and posters, etc. All of this is fine, but their latest move crosses the line. They are spray painting ads on sidewalks.
I took this photo outside of the OCAD building, but it is one of many. I have seen them on Queen St., outside of 52 Division Police Station on Dundas St. and many other locations. This is so inappropriate I cannot even begin to describe it.
If approved, then whoever allowed it should be held accountable. If this is simply criminal vandalism, then Chevrolet needs to be punished accordingly and these need to be cleaned off.
It’s a similar campaign to the Yellow Pages one from last year (which at least used the sidewalk kind-of creatively) . There was also a company a year or two ago that did a similar thing and was ordered, if I recall, to clean it up (was it the Nike-Kensington gallery space “incident”?). Perhaps this ad firm was inspired by all the Chevy’s (and four-wheeled relatives) we find parked up on the sidewalk these days. Or maybe they looked forward to a blog like Spacing or Aquatic Existence picking up on it, and getting Johnny’s word out even more. If you turn your speakers up right now, you may be able to hear Bob Seger’s Like A Rock in the background.
It doesn’t help that whoever Chevy hired to do the installation got red paint outside the stencils. If you’re going to be an illegal guerilla, at least be a smart and competent one, like Koko that gorilla who can do sign language.
—
Unrelatedly:
Matt also points out that today’s Rocketboom episode is on the AGO and Cronenberg’s Warhol exhibit. Spacing quite admires the way Rocketboom makes their daily programs, often featuring some element of public space. Yesterday’s episode had some public space invaders, in the form of (fake) dead pedestrians used as traffic calming bumps — the kind of guerilla effort that has a purpose aruguably more altuistic than Johnny’s.
10 comments
Oooh how I hate those Chevy TV ads. They simply ape the style of “Napolean Dynamite” for the cool factor (which I think is wearing thin these days). One of them features a Fannypack song, so I find it a little less irritating. JMO. On a side note, Johnny seems to suffer from autism, which makes me feel bad.
I called the graffiti hotline at the City and placed a complaint.
someone stencilled campaign slogans on the sidewalks of mcgill campus during the last referendum in quebec. my personal favourite: “be young, be cool, vote oui”! any thoughts on whether these kinds of political messages are more or less acceptable on our sidewalks than advertising?
There are obvious differences between political graffiti and advertising. Chevy ads can dominate every form of media that is available for purchase. The sidewalk stencils are unnecessary becuz you can see their campaign everywhere: on TV, buses, subways, magazines, newspaper, radio….
Whereas political graffiti encourgaes feedback and thought. The referewndum may not be a good example becuz there was a lot of money behind that campaign from the Feds.
I think, in general, you will find people are just as annoyed by silly geurilla marketing as they are with silly graffiti tags. Maybe even more so.
In a couple of US cities, IBM did this a couple of years ago for a Linux promotion, and Sony recently did something similar for the PSP.
Both were unauthorized by the cities, and got smacked-down by the city council after the fact.
But hey… the marketing firms probably just wrote the fines into the advertising budgets. They probably wouldn’t have been given permission for the campaigns in the first place, so it was simpler to just do it and eat the fine. (Which was probably less than the cost of renting billboards.)
This is probably the same thing.
rocketboom today was awesome! i enjoyed speaking with cronenberg and mostly i am just happy the vlog is back online
I am outraged. What an abuse of our public space. Thanks for calling that complaint in Matt. If it would be helpful for others to call too please let me know who to call. I hope the fine is HUGE.
I saw this walking back from class about a month ago and struck me as a nuisance. Earlier on that same block, lots of chalk art was done which made the sidewalk a more enjoyable stroll. Maybe they thought it would pass as the same sort of thing. yeah right.
It’s also rather ironic that this is done right outside the police station, plus I find those Johnny ads annoying
I think this may be “degredation creep”. Our sidewalks are such a mess as a result of all those orange spray markings inflicted by the utility companies that there is no respect for the environment underfoot. (From what I understand, because they are federallly regulated the utilities don’t need any municipal permission to deface our town & leave us to pay the clean-up costs)
It’s quite a clever way to advertise, actually, but that doesn’t make it any less appropriate. People have much better things to do than patrol the sidewalks, looking for people defacing them.
Also, the Johnny ads are ludicrous. The idea of cars having mascots (like Johnny and Dodge’s ‘Dr. Z’ guy) are just stupid. Can’t they think of a better way to market their car?
But there is one thing that really bothers me; that guy in the backseat of one of the Johnny commercials- he looks like he’s maybe 15 or so- looks EXACTLY like a younger version of a character on ABC’s tv show, Lost. I can’t find the name of the commercial’s actor, though. Augh!