Ray-Ban's traffic-stopping promotion
Photo: Jemal Countess
Last week, a reader e-mailed us with feedback on a recent Ray-Ban marketing stunt. The July 1 promotion, which featured 100 sunglasses-clad actors standing and staring at a Ray-Ban billboard in a busy Manhattan intersection for 20 minutes, angered the reader because of the environmental impact of the traffic it caused. (The full letter is here.)
The letter sparked several readers around the world to send us their feedback as well, and their takes might be influenced by their locations—the two readers farther away from Manhattan (and New York traffic) found the stunt less offensive.
“Your reader clearly is upset, but their anger is misdirected. If they want to make an eco-case, yell at the drivers who, well aware of the perils of downtown Toronto summer traffic, choose a fossil fuel powered vehicle. We all hate traffic jams, and I suspect your reader was having a particularly bad day and needed to vent, but to suggest that a simple marketing stunt was a crime against the planet (my words, not theirs) is ridiculous.”
—Simon Jennings, Toronto“I think the reader with the complaint has taken the issue of green too far; we can all make choices whether to ‘rubberneck’ an accident or a group of people standing in the street gawking upwards; if the cabbie decides to stop and stare we can tell him to move on and stop wasting fuel, if that is the concern. Events and promotions are about choice; you can choose to participate or not. If we are going to reduce ourselves to evaluating time based on fuel economies on a microscale such as this, there would be no reason for events and promotions to exist whose major purpose is to bring a bit of color and fun to our lives. Yes, sometimes this does eat up a bit of fuel, but there are so many ways to offset this if we're smart enough. The great thing about the Ray-Ban promotion was it used ‘people power’ in a very simple format to generate attention—no big production was used! Frankly I would rather allow my cabbie to rubberneck a promotional activity that is fun and absurd than rubberneck an accident.”
—Preeta Panicker, event manager, Dubai
“After reading the initial article, I was amazed that no one assaulted these people in the street. Our offices are on 42nd Street ,and I could just imagine Ray Ban-clad actors scattering like pigeons as cabs and truckers barreled through this group of upward gazers, if this promotion was tried in this area. This was a dangerous and foolish attempt to gain attention. Luckily, no one was injured, but whoever came up with this promotion was wearing their Ray Bans in the dark.”
—Richard O’Malley, special events director, New York
The letter sparked several readers around the world to send us their feedback as well, and their takes might be influenced by their locations—the two readers farther away from Manhattan (and New York traffic) found the stunt less offensive.
“Your reader clearly is upset, but their anger is misdirected. If they want to make an eco-case, yell at the drivers who, well aware of the perils of downtown Toronto summer traffic, choose a fossil fuel powered vehicle. We all hate traffic jams, and I suspect your reader was having a particularly bad day and needed to vent, but to suggest that a simple marketing stunt was a crime against the planet (my words, not theirs) is ridiculous.”
—Simon Jennings, Toronto“I think the reader with the complaint has taken the issue of green too far; we can all make choices whether to ‘rubberneck’ an accident or a group of people standing in the street gawking upwards; if the cabbie decides to stop and stare we can tell him to move on and stop wasting fuel, if that is the concern. Events and promotions are about choice; you can choose to participate or not. If we are going to reduce ourselves to evaluating time based on fuel economies on a microscale such as this, there would be no reason for events and promotions to exist whose major purpose is to bring a bit of color and fun to our lives. Yes, sometimes this does eat up a bit of fuel, but there are so many ways to offset this if we're smart enough. The great thing about the Ray-Ban promotion was it used ‘people power’ in a very simple format to generate attention—no big production was used! Frankly I would rather allow my cabbie to rubberneck a promotional activity that is fun and absurd than rubberneck an accident.”
—Preeta Panicker, event manager, Dubai
“After reading the initial article, I was amazed that no one assaulted these people in the street. Our offices are on 42nd Street ,and I could just imagine Ray Ban-clad actors scattering like pigeons as cabs and truckers barreled through this group of upward gazers, if this promotion was tried in this area. This was a dangerous and foolish attempt to gain attention. Luckily, no one was injured, but whoever came up with this promotion was wearing their Ray Bans in the dark.”
—Richard O’Malley, special events director, New York
