• by Liz Tascio , May 1, 2009

There's nothing playful about grand central station at rush hour.

Usually you keep your head low and walk fast, dodging the tourists who gawk at the ceiling. But then one day, there's a troop of gorgeous living mannequins posing on the staircase, holding the smallest, shiniest laptops you've ever seen.

Go ahead, stop and play. Lots of people did - and they'll remember Sony's Vaio P-series, a sleek 8-inch mini weighing in at 1.4 pounds. Grand Central does not welcome many advertisers. Maserati sometimes parks a car and raffles it off for $1,000 a ticket. So how did Jack Morton Worldwide - and agency of record 180 LA - land this deal? "With great difficulty and a lot of smiles," says Bea Cochran, a JM account executive, perched at a table in Grand Central's swanky Metrazur restaurant. Behind her, seated mannequins posed across from businessmen mesmerized by the small screen. "Sony looked at this product and said, 'This is a really innovative product, and everyone we show it to gets really excited,' " adds Sony's Ken Byers, messaging manager of corporate marketing, also on hand for the Grand Central launch. Sony wanted a showcase that captured that first impression. The mannequins have also appeared in other city locales during Fashion Week, wearing a different FW designer each time.

And where did the mannequins come from? Cochran reveals the smile that won over the MTA. "They came from a store window," she says.