What Was Grappa Thinking?

Grappa YellowpagesAs a resident of Little Italy, I just have to ask: what is a fine Italian dining location like Grappa thinking putting this eyesore of an advertisement on their storefront?

This Yellowpages zeppelin of an ad showed up a few weeks ago and leaves me scratching my head. How did Yellowpages possibly pitch this idea? They better be offering some serious compensation.

Fingers crossed that this is not part of a wider campaign to hit more spots in the city.

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There are certainly more of these around town. There's one on the patio of the Black Bull (Queen and Soho). I also saw another somewhere (not the Grappa dart), but can't remember where.

Posted by: Mark at July 11, 2008 10:22 AM

Unfortunately these things are everywhere - there's one that's 'smashed' a table at the Black Bull (oh, those genius advertisers), and I just saw one on Queen East this morning on my way in - small boutique, I think.

I think you can expect to see more and more pop up this summer.

Posted by: annamazon at July 11, 2008 10:23 AM

there is one on Queen St. E as well. it's an eyesore.

Posted by: Denise at July 11, 2008 10:24 AM

there's one in the Esplanade too. I think it's at Scotland Yard

Posted by: huginho at July 11, 2008 10:33 AM

I haven't opened a Yellowpages book in 10 years. Nor have I visited them online. I'm surprised they're still afloat.

Posted by: Jerrold at July 11, 2008 10:34 AM

I actually used that eyesore as a landmark to help me remember where I parked when I went to the Mod Club during the Jazz Festival. Ugly? Definitely. Entirely useless? Nope.

Posted by: stv at July 11, 2008 10:36 AM

I think this is supposed to be a dart not a zeppelin.

Posted by: Thomas at July 11, 2008 10:45 AM

There's one on the gabby's patio on king ("smashed table") and one in the side of Outward Bound across from MEC also on king

Posted by: gegtik at July 11, 2008 10:46 AM

Theres one on the top of a van on the corner of church and bloor

Posted by: jgarvie at July 11, 2008 10:54 AM

I guess being the subjects of the worst-ever episode of Restaurant Makeover wasn't enough!

Posted by: oscar at July 11, 2008 10:59 AM

"what is a fine Italian dining location like Grappa thinking putting this eyesore of an advertisement on their storefront?"

$$$$$$

Honestly, even if people dislike them, the ads draw attention. We have a blog post right here with people discussing the ads.

Posted by: Rick at July 11, 2008 11:01 AM

Cheap copy of a Capital One Bank campaign in the US, where giant push-pins descend on taxis, etc.

Posted by: uSkyscraper at July 11, 2008 11:14 AM

Hehe.. this reminds me of the hideous (imho) moose campaign Toronto did... although at least they weren't all the same thing. This type of advertising though, seems too overt... big turn off.

Posted by: Corina at July 11, 2008 11:33 AM

There's one squooshed into the roof of a van I saw driving around. That can't be safe.

Posted by: Kim at July 11, 2008 11:33 AM

Granted that the Moose in the City was meant to help boost tourism in Toronto, but it was an art show, not blatant shameless advertising, like these ugly darts. I think Moose in the City was a good idea, just very poor execution. But I'm biased, I suppose, since I painted three of the moose...

Posted by: patricia at July 11, 2008 11:44 AM

Steve's Music on Queen also has one, I've seen the elsewhere too. I wonder how much the stores get paid and how long they are gonna stick around for

Posted by: heatherc at July 11, 2008 12:16 PM

As far as 'guerilla advertising' I prefer this approach to the completely illegal Vespa campaign from a while back. Aesthetics aside, all of these spots are legal, and while the darts might be an eyesore at least the city and property owner won't be stuck with the bill for removing them later on. While I find any incursion of advertising into public space not specifically designated for that purpose to be pretty objectionable, I hope this campaign succeeds and that the advertising doofuses aren't tempted to paste up illegal crap all over Toronto again.

Posted by: filler at July 11, 2008 12:42 PM

There's one sticking out of a window at Jilly's (Queen and Broadview).

Posted by: Ratpick at July 11, 2008 12:47 PM

There is one at Europe Bound near Front and Church.
You must admit though, it does draw attention.

Posted by: U. N. Owen at July 11, 2008 1:19 PM

@ Ratpick

At Jilly's? Really?

Posted by: Colin at July 11, 2008 1:29 PM

I kinda want one... or maybe I just want to chase people around with them.

Posted by: Heather at July 11, 2008 2:50 PM

Cool prop ads like this aren't actually cool unless it's some small niche and indie-friendly company or some long-loved Toronto mainstay (Big ass neon Sam's sign anyone?) doing it.

Seriously, the smashed Gabby's table is fuckin' awesome.

Posted by: Ry-Tron at July 11, 2008 3:08 PM

Eyesore? I prefer these much more over enormous, unimaginative billboards that try to paste themselves onto the landscape in a much more blatant, boring way. These darts at least have an iota of whimsy.

Posted by: Gloria at July 11, 2008 3:30 PM

I bet you most people that have never noticed Grappa amongst everything else on that strip will now notice it when they drive, cycle, walk, run by it because of that dart. FOUND

Posted by: peter at July 11, 2008 3:34 PM

these are EVERYWHERE. i walked down bloor and spadina and saw around 4 on the way. i personally don't mind them and think the whole campaign is quite clever

Posted by: will at July 11, 2008 3:35 PM

Meh.
I see nothing wrong with any gimmick one needs to use to compete with the big guys with huge advertising budgets. Do whatever it takes to get noticed in this world.

Posted by: Christopher King at July 11, 2008 3:38 PM

Wow. This gets pointed out now? These things have been all over the city for at least a couple of weeks. Way to keep current, BlogTO!

Posted by: Mario at July 11, 2008 4:29 PM

They ads are definitely interesting and different...but effective? Their website sucks and using the yellow pages book isn't even a consideration...if the product isn't worth it, all the advertising is for nought.

But this is really worth it for the people using the darts. Look at all the mentions they're getting! Ads are fun.

Posted by: guy lafleur stole my bike at July 11, 2008 4:48 PM

They have been all over the city for weeks, I can't believe this is the first one you've noticed.

These darts might be a nice change from eyesore billboards, even clever, but they are another example of ad creep. Like chalk ads on the sidewalk that don't wash off for months, ads in places we don't expect to see ads grab attention and then become standard offers by media buyers. Over-urinal ads, ads on coasters, station/vehicle takeovers, viral plants, faux "grass roots" campaigns. Remember when we didn't have these things? They didn't go away after the campaigns that initiated the format, and now they're just as hard to escape as billboards.

Soon we can expect giant props everywhere -- sides of homes taken over by Microsoft window-flag installations, plastic yellow O's running the length of Yonge for Google, et cetera.

Posted by: rek at July 11, 2008 5:12 PM

I fu*cking love over urinal ads! Who doesn't really? How about a dart smashing a urinal, that would be cool too.

Posted by: P at July 11, 2008 8:08 PM

Who uses the Yellow Pages? And why did they copy the Capital One Bank ads? Did they pay the agency that developed the Cap One campaign to lease it for Toronto? One hopes so. But prolly not.

Posted by: warmflash at July 11, 2008 10:08 PM

they're all over the downtown core.. it's in a store's interest to take the partnership knowing that it's insinuating that yellowpages would direct a user searching for x product to their store
yellowpages.ca has a huge amount of traffic monthly (several millions of canadians).. i think it's taking over the print version

my agency negotiated these, and quite honestly I haven't seen any media placement this good in a while

Posted by: andrew at July 11, 2008 10:22 PM

Jerrold commented on the YP being kinda obsolete, and its true, but its like neighbourhood newspapers that show up at everyone's door half full of ads and stuffed with 6000% their weight in flyers... it doesn't really matter in terms of the bottom line whether anyone ends up reading those papers, up until the point where there's no ad money left.

Why anyone would pick up a paper copy, I'm not sure (any time I have in the past half decade, I've just been annoyed that there's no listing options except business type/alphabetical) but it still sounds foolish to be trying to run a business and _not_ get yourself a Yellow Pages ad. It'll take a long time for the perception of usefulness to catch up with any decline in use, and the website was originally a lot more reliable than Google's auto-compiled info.

Posted by: Chris Orbz at July 11, 2008 10:28 PM

whoa! hopefully, they will win a Gold at MIA this year!

Posted by: jack at July 12, 2008 8:06 PM

good placement for yellowpages... not so good for the victim

Posted by: Greg Davis [TypeKey Profile Page] at July 13, 2008 9:30 AM

Would someone just bite the bullet and make a Google Maps Mashup of this already?!

Posted by: Andrew la Fleur at July 14, 2008 1:05 PM

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