Advertising that is Uniquely New York
By Kevin Price, Editor at Large, USABR.
Recently I visited New York to give a speech. This is not unusual, but this time I also thought I would enjoy the city like a tourist. I did that and my media team accumulated some interesting content in the process. In a series of articles I discuss my visit to one of my favorite locations, the New York Public Library, where they had an exhibit celebrating the many revolutions that helped to make the 1960s very interesting. Meanwhile, my team did a fascinating story (including restored video) of Manhattan at the turn of the century (no, not the early 2000s, the other century). In addition, I wrote about the odd lessons I learned from the Amazon brick and mortar bookstore that I bumped into that has become all the craze. Frankly, I did not get it. Click here to see future articles and to learn more about the other articles in the series.
The Price of Business and its media partners have done a series of articles celebrating New York. For background on the series and to get links to the articles click here.
Getting a Place to Live, the New York City Way
One of the things I stumbled onto was an unusual ad campaign by a company called Street Easy. It is a company made exclusively for residents of New York City. You get that from the campaign. All are clever and memorable. Here are a few I stumbled on:
“My dream is outdoor space. My reality is, hopefully, a fire escape.”
“Manhattan + An English Degree = Guarantors Accepted”
“Guarantors accepted is just one more way mom can continue to dominate my life in subtle yet all encompassing ways.”
My favorite was the one below. Forgive me for it being slightly blurry, it was taken while riding the subway. This one, more than any, reminded me why I continue to strongly believe New York is a fantastic place to visit, but I would not want to live there.
Calling it a Conflict of Interest!
Another ad campaign I saw was from a watchdog group that clearly has an ax to grind with Facebook. This sign really caught my attention, mainly because there has been so little said about it in national media. I thought it was fascinating. It is certainly newsworthy. The lack of information made me do my homework and, sure enough, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who is the most powerful Democrat in the Senate as the minority leader does have a daughter, and she does work for Facebook. Inside Sources reports “Alison Schumer is a Privacy And Product Marketing Manager at Facebook, according to her LinkedIn page. And, coincidentally(?), her employer donated more political money to her dad than any other member of Congress.” I believe there is clearly the potential of conflict of interest, with new concerns about Facebook and data. Yet, it seems to be one of the best kept secrets in politics. It should be national headlines, but instead it is uniquely New York. Read more about the controversy here.
Why are There so Many Signs Promoting TV Shows?
Finally, I began to notice something that is not uniquely New York, per se, but is more pervasive there than anywhere I have seen. Everywhere I turned there were billboards for television shows. When one thinks of Times Square they think of the billboards promoting Broadway and off-Broadway shows. That makes sense since that city has more stages than any other in the country, if not the world. However, for every single sign I saw for a Broadway show, I saw several for TV shows. This was odd, because I would think that, with the unique nightlife of the city, very few would be sitting at home watching television. Then it hit me. There is probably no city with more TV critics than New York. Furthermore, the vast majority that are considered influential are in the Big Apple. It was a very big ad buy for a very small group. Classic New York.
There is no particular “take away” from this, just a few of my takes on one of the most unique cities in the country — and the world. It remains a city I love to visit and, for many reasons, one I love to leave.
Kevin Price is the Editor at Large of USA Business Radio. He is a nationally syndicated columnist and radio host. His program, The Price of Business is coast to coast on the Biz Talk Radio Network. He is a multi-award winning journalist and speaker. Learn more about him here.
Photo credits: The first two are by the author, the third is from Pixabay.com.
