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Formal Manhattan Street Protest Pits Teamsters Blow-up Rat against
Inflatable Human
NEW YORK, Nov. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Cohn & Wolfe, the maverick PR agency
known for its unconventional approach to creative concepts and strategies,
revealed today that it is the mysterious group behind a recent flood of
activist support for rats, including a formal protest orchestrated on the
streets of Manhattan this week. Bogus rat advocates claimed that the unions
use of a blow-up rat at its strike rallies cast the already sullied mammal in
an unflattering light.
For months, insiders have been speculating about who, or what, was behind
the quirky campaign imploring media and the public alike to "learn to love"
rats and to only refer to them as "the more regal and respectable, Great
Pointed Archers." Blog sites from PETA2.com to adweek.com have been musing
about the effort, labeling it everything from a hardy hoax to a curious cause.
And more than half a million perplexed visitors barraged the peculiar Great
Pointed Archer Website.
The underground movement began with a trio of viral videos -- leaked by
email and then virally distributed -- that put humans in the battered and
neglected shoes of rats. The first vignette depicts unsuspecting businessmen
walking to work and being snared in sticky traps as horrified "rat humans"
scurry by. Another video shows a college student snapped in an oversized rat
trap while reaching for tasty "sandwich bait." Upon hearing the trap, the
"rat homeowner" runs to the kitchen, squeamishly removes the human and re-sets
the trap. A third video explores a non-violent form of human-on-rat cruelty --
emotional brutality -- as rat partygoers are sent scurrying out of the room
when a human walks in to grab a bite to eat.
In conjunction with the videos, thousands of emails were distributed
encouraging people to visit http://www.greatpointedarcher.com, where curious visitors
could play Great Pointed Archer games; purchase clothing or stickers featuring
the campaigns "Learn How to Love" logo featuring a rat floating on a pastel
cloud; sign a petition in support of Great Pointed Archers or simply learn
interesting facts about the loveable creature. The mock campaign culminated
this week with a formal protest in Manhattan where dozens of Great Pointed
Archer supporters inflated a large blow-up human in protest of the local
unions use of blow-up rats. Picketers yelled slogans, such as "Rats arent
scabs, people are!" and "Learn to Love," the campaigns slogan.
According to Jeremy Baka, the Chief Creative Catalyst for the agency that
calls itself a "bigtique," Cohn & Wolfe created the Great Pointed Archer
campaign as part of an off-beat project designed to showcase the firms
branding abilities.
"Were branding experts; thats what we do," explained Baka. "To
illustrate that, we wanted to do something more than just put an ad in the
trades -- thats not our style." Instead, the Cohn & Wolfe team assigned
itself the single most ambitious public influence campaign ever attempted ...
re-branding the rat. "We wanted to see if we could take the common rat and
shift its perception toward that of a warmer, cuddlier, misunderstood mammal.
Besides, I have an affinity toward them -- my desk looks like a Great Pointed
Archers nest." Baka mused.
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