New forms of marketing that include so-called "out of the box" thinking with labels like guerrilla, viral, and word-of-mouth are all the rage among advertisers looking to capture consumers' attention.
But at least one marketer's efforts have captured the unwanted attention of the District of Columbia, which recently fined the company for a "new media" ad campaign. The target of the District's
wrath was Verizon Communications, which was fined more than $1,000 for stenciling orange-red chalk ads on sidewalks across the city to promote its Yellow Pages. "Looking for Something? Find it in the
... Verizon Yellow Pages," read the roughly 2-by-3-foot ads that turned up on heavily traveled sidewalks. "We take this kind of thing pretty seriously, said Mary Myers, a spokeswoman for the District
Department of Public Works. "Litter, graffiti, posters ... anything that defaces, clutters or dirties the city and makes it less welcoming and less hospitable is really anathema." Apparently such ads
are prohibited in D.C. without a permit, even if they are made of water-soluble chalk and would disappear in a relatively short time. A Verizon spokeswoman said the company asked the contractor who
placed the ads to clean them up as soon as it learned of the violation on Wednesday.
advertisement
advertisement
Read the whole story at Washington Post »