City
What Was Grappa Thinking?
As 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.
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.
there is one on Queen St. E as well. it's an eyesore.
there's one in the Esplanade too. I think it's at Scotland Yard
I haven't opened a Yellowpages book in 10 years. Nor have I visited them online. I'm surprised they're still afloat.
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.
I think this is supposed to be a dart not a zeppelin.
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
Theres one on the top of a van on the corner of church and bloor
I guess being the subjects of the worst-ever episode of Restaurant Makeover wasn't enough!
"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.
Cheap copy of a Capital One Bank campaign in the US, where giant push-pins descend on taxis, etc.
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.
There's one squooshed into the roof of a van I saw driving around. That can't be safe.
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...
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
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.
There's one sticking out of a window at Jilly's (Queen and Broadview).
There is one at Europe Bound near Front and Church.
You must admit though, it does draw attention.
@ Ratpick
At Jilly's? Really?
I kinda want one... or maybe I just want to chase people around with them.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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!
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.
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.
I fu*cking love over urinal ads! Who doesn't really? How about a dart smashing a urinal, that would be cool too.
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.
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
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.
whoa! hopefully, they will win a Gold at MIA this year!
good placement for yellowpages... not so good for the victim
Would someone just bite the bullet and make a Google Maps Mashup of this already?!
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