Friday, May 24, 2013

CWCapital/CompassRock Employs "Burma Shave" Concept to Push Rentals INSIDE Stuy Town




Here's a little Americana for you.  In ye olde days, roughly from the 1920s to the 1950s, Burma-Shave used an interesting ad concept to promote its brand: a series of five low signs, spaced apart on a road, whose last sign would be the name of the company.  The four preceding signs were usually part of a quirky home-spun type poem, usually humorous in nature.  It was a great idea--one that obviously distracted motorists from the road, much like texting is doing these days.

Well, the PR/advertising firm for CWCapital/CompassRock is now using a somewhat similar concept in an attempt to push rentals in Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village.  The series of signs starts off on the perimeter of the complex, seen by anyone walking by, with "Move into More"....


Now the natural question would be: "Move into more...what?"

If you proceed into Stuy Town and walk around the Oval, you will get your answer:






Curiously, this series around the Oval is, like Burma-Shave, made of five signs, unless I'm missing one or two. (I believe there's a "More Space" being used in online/print ads.)

The telling point is that the pitch for rentals is happening inside Stuy Town.  The Powers that Be are using the public access feature of the complex, and the disregard of "For Residents and Their Guests Only" events and Oval Cafe, to address outsiders who come here for use of the Oval.  They may as well paint a yellow brick road from all entry points that lead to the Emerald City--the Oval.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

They really broke the bank with the stock photography this time!

A search on the MORE! girl shows she is synonymous with online dating and sex adverts. Like this one. You would think their marketing people would have run a quick Google image search on her.

To make matters worse they made her skinnier after butchering the original photo in Photoshop.

If there's an upside, at least she isn't sucking on anything in a lascivious manner like the children.

Anonymous said...

Despicable management.

Eff them!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Black and white ads are morose like the Alfred Hitchcock landscapes in my lobby. Things are dark enough around here these days. Take your storm clouds ads and "art" down please.

Anonymous said...

More thongs in the bushes! More condoms on the lawns! More beer cans in the mailboxes! More Andrew MacArthur's Animal House vision for Stuy Town!

Anonymous said...

MORE $$$$ FOR THE DEBT HOLDERS!!!!!

Anonymous said...

The hipster couple is fake too.

Anonymous said...

As pathetic as their stock photo ads are- at least they're slightly less irresponsible than when TS used a still from MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM to advertise Oval Film. It happened to be a still of Frank Sinatra with a belt wrapped around his upper arm (as a tourniquet), as he tried to raise a vein to shoot his heroin into. How stupid can you get?!? That said, I can hardly wait until CWC's equally clueless PR dept selects a similarly foolish image. Give'em time, after their most recent utterly clueless move (raising rents mid-lease can't be a well thought-out business strategy, esp if you're a potential new tenant), it won't be long until we all get a chuckle over their next graphic stumble. I'd put money on it (errrr..., that IS if I have any left that I won't be putting towards my security deposit at my new, NOT in STPCV apartment. Thanks bunches, CWC!).

Anonymous said...

Can someone explain to me why their leasing office, which faces West, requires blackout windows? It doesn't get any direct sunlight. It does, however, get filled with college kids with mommies and daddies consigning their spawn away. It's like speed dating for irresponsible child roommates.

Anonymous said...

I think your readers should have a contest to create satirical "more" ads for STPCV - for instance more dog shit, more garbage, more burglaries, more vomit, more bed bugs etc. or perhaps less services, less laundry rooms, less lawns (especially PCV) etc. I am sure you get the idea.

Anonymous said...

I got a few more slogans for their banners
"More Filth"
"More Noise"
"More Woo Hooing"
"More Doing Your Laundry in the East River"
" More Stair Climbing" -"Hey We Improve Fitness By Not Fixing Broken Elevators"

Stuy Town Reporter said...

>>I think your readers should have a contest to create satirical "more" ads for STPCV - for instance more dog shit, more garbage, more burglaries, more vomit, more bed bugs etc. or perhaps less services, less laundry rooms, less lawns (especially PCV) etc. I am sure you get the idea.<<

I'm working on "More Dog Shit"...

Stuy Town Reporter said...

>>Can someone explain to me why their leasing office, which faces West, requires blackout windows?<<

I'm assuming to give more privacy to the dirty dealings inside and protect the guilty.

Anonymous said...

Can they blackout the back door too so we don't have to stare into the anus?

Anonymous said...

More vermin running around the laundry rooms!

Anonymous said...

Anon at 1229aM
That assumes that your building HAS a laundry room!
A laundry room is now considered a "luxury" not a "necessity" by CW, hence laundry rooms remain unfixed 7 months after Sandy

Anonymous said...

Sean Sullivan said at his Town Hall meeting the elevators would be back up and running by June.

The clock is ticking!

But don't ask him about it or he'll change the subject to Shakespeare classes for seniors or say the broken elevators "didn't happen."

Anonymous said...

Not broken elevators--new free health club! Now you take the stairs...

Anonymous said...

Sean Sullivan turns his back on people more than a whirling dervish!

Anonymous said...

Has anyone seen the parody ads being posted on the ST Facebook page under events? Sweet Summer Suck Offs and Donkey Shows. I nearly peed myself laughing. Guess they don't monitor the page so much lol

Anonymous said...

Anony 8.33 PM-Shhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Anonymous said...

The Stuy Town Facebook page! Donkey Shows!!!! ROFLMFAO!!!! Don't they check their own page???? Or are they tired of reading our customer complaints and now choose to ignore it?