Slice of Life: Snacks on Wheels

You may or may not remember a series of television commercials that ran a couple of months ago for Little Debbie snack cakes.  They showed a small fleet of three tiny cars decorated like cupcakes driving across America spreading happiness and joy the way only baked goods can.

If you kept your eyes open, you might have actually seen those cars in Chicago.  I managed to catch two of them in the Lincoln Park neighborhood.  There weren't any cupcake personnel stationed by the cars which were stashed away on a quiet side street.  Perhaps they'd piled into the third car and gone for some coffee.

 

More Rogue Ads on Chicago Streets

Sony learned its lesson.  So did IBM.  But Zipcars... not so much.

The vehicle sharing service which promotes itself as an environmentally friendly alternative to owning a car appears to be guilty of visual pollution.

A number of big companies have done similar things -- putting graffiti on city sidewalks in order to push their products.  IBM did it with Linux.  Sony did it with the PSP.  In both cases, the companies were fined for their transgressions.

In this case, Zipcar has put chalk graffiti on the streets of Chicago's Loop pointing to the location at 160 North Wabash Street.  Whether anyone follows the arrow is a moot point.  That's not why companies post ads like these.  They're looking for branding, and if someone happens to use it as a visual aid then that's just a bonus.

Zipcar promotes itself on its web site as, "Zipcars are good for the planet."  I guess the company also believes the planet would look better with a few extra tattoos.

Another Store Turned Into an Ad

We've written about this before -- the desperation of marketers to reach the Michigan Avenue audience while most of the area remains billboard-free.  But what was once creative -- turning empty storefronts into giant billboards -- has now become cliche.

The latest one we came across is an ad for yet-another end-of-the-world movie plastered all over the vacant retail space at the base of the 50 East Chestnut residential tower.  It's a shame that a location so far off the tourist path should be marred in this fashion, but it's understandable since it's not like stores are beating down the door to locate on the corner of Chestnut and Rush.

Nearby, Intel's two-story store-wrap ad at the dead CompUSA on the corner of Chicago Avenue and Rush Street have been replaced by a giant Puma Store ad.

Trendwatch: Abandoned Stores as Billboards

For the third time this summer, an abandoned storefront on Michigan Avenue has been turned into an advertising billboard.

The first time was at the old Bennigan's at the Illinois Center.  Snickers quickly snapped up its prominently located windows for full-size banners touting the confection.

Then when National Community Bank moved out of the corner of Lake and Michigan it was quickly covered with a giant yellow ad for beer, complete with a giant video screen.

Now, the old Greek National Bank space just north of the Smurfit-Stone Building has been plastered over with another ad for alcohol.

Advertisers are desperate to reach the numbers and demographics of Michigan Avenue, but with zero billboard space they're resorting to more and more sneaky methods of squeezing in.  See our article about Target's Bullseye Bazaar earlier this year.  How much longer before a real billboard opens up on Chicago's most coveted shopping street?

Intel Pops Up at Dead CompUSA

It used to be possible to walk into 101 East Chicago Avenue and buy an Intel processor.  Of course, that hasn't been the case for at least a year since the CompUSA store at that location closed  its doors.  But Intel is back -- using the space as a combination billboard and PR stunt.

The billboard beckons passers by to text their thoughts on the future to INTEL on their cell phones and what they write might just appear on the big TV on the ground level.  Or not.  With similar displays up at other locations around the country, you might want to wait until the dead of night to try your hand at publicizing your thoughts to what is likely the world's smallest broadcast audience.