Shire is a Lexington company that got permission earlier this year to sell a drug that allegedly helps people with chronic dry eye disease. You know, like Restasis. But unlike the company that makes that, Shire's decided a good way to advertise their product is to fill the sidewalks of Boston with chalk ads overnight. The city reports it's sending out parks-department crews to deal with the dry chalk issue - by washing the crap off.
Shire's headquarters is conveniently located off the intersections of 128 and 2, should anybody wish to do a little impromptu chalking. We're sure they'd love it.
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How cute, executives working
By Saul
Fri, 10/07/2016 - 1:50pm
How cute, executives working in car-centric suburban office parks who probably never walk anywhere, seeing city sidewalks as free billboards.
Shire's apparently too cheap
By roadman
Fri, 10/07/2016 - 1:53pm
That's probably because they've clearly blown their entire ad budget on over six months worth of "station domination" at the MBTA North Station subway station and commuter rail waiting area.
Sidewalks aren't for ads! The
By Kinopio
Fri, 10/07/2016 - 1:59pm
Sidewalks aren't for ads! The gall of this company! They are only for delivery trucks, uber drivers and people too lazy to look for a spot to park their motor vehicles.
Who cares?
By Lunchbox
Fri, 10/07/2016 - 2:23pm
I don't get the vitriol. I saw one of these walking to work this morning. I stepped over it and kept walking without giving it a second thought. Didn't affect my life one bit.
There's plenty of goofy crap (sometimes literally) on the sidewalks every day; this was nothing.
If you liked these ads
By erik g
Fri, 10/07/2016 - 2:37pm
then you're going to LOVE my new advertising platform. It involves me coming to your house and pouring Round-Up on your lawn in such a way as to spell out my name in dead grass.
After all, there's plenty of other goofy crap on your lawn, why should you object to this?
While I'm not in favor of
By anon
Fri, 10/07/2016 - 3:25pm
While I'm not in favor of companies chalking up public sidewalks, your argument is dumb. Are you really comparing vandalizing someone's private property permanently to making a temporary washable drawing on a public walkway?
Erik...
By zetag
Fri, 10/07/2016 - 4:35pm
In all seriousness, please explain to me how the two situations presented are at all comparable?
over
By Steeve
Fri, 10/07/2016 - 3:17pm
You stepped over it? Are you superstitious about stepping on chalk ads?
maybe people wouldn't have dry eyes...
By rustem-slobodin
Fri, 10/07/2016 - 2:24pm
..if it wasn't for all of the dusty chalk build up in Boston!
I hope they bill the company.
By anon
Fri, 10/07/2016 - 2:27pm
I hope they bill the company.
I am in favor of this
By erik g
Fri, 10/07/2016 - 2:36pm
Washing the graffiti off the sidewalks is setting excellent precedent for other would-be carpet-bagging POS advertisers who want to exploit the commons. Now, let's finish the job by sending Shire a bill for the man-hours it took to clean up their mess.
Eye say
By Mister Jeeves
Fri, 10/07/2016 - 2:39pm
Eye have never seen such spectacle a long as eye have lived
Channeling Norma Nathan, Eye
By bastiat
Fri, 10/07/2016 - 3:02pm
Channeling Norma Nathan, Eye See!
Don't see what the big deal is...
By anon
Fri, 10/07/2016 - 2:42pm
It's creative advertising just like how the local gangs "tat" walls and claim to be "graffiti artists"... at least it was chalk and the shit washes away.
why advertising on public property w/out permission is bad
By hux
Fri, 10/07/2016 - 2:56pm
Do we really have to get into the possible issues if they let whoever wanted to advertise for free on public property with zero oversight? One bad precedent, and all of our streets and sidewalks will be covered.
Nevermind the content. Sure these are just eye drops, but what about when it is a company or product that isn't so harmless. Maybe it's a controversial product or company, but to just let this slide who set a terrible precedent.
sidewalk sam?
By bostnkid
Fri, 10/07/2016 - 3:16pm
my friend told me he saw some "corporate" guys in suits pull up and drag sam him into a van.
Sam
By Steeve
Fri, 10/07/2016 - 3:21pm
Sidewalk Sam's no longer here, man.
Sam died a few years ago.
By anon
Fri, 10/07/2016 - 3:48pm
Sam died a few years ago.
IBM did something like this 15 years ago
By Ron Newman
Fri, 10/07/2016 - 4:12pm
though with spraypaint rather than chalk, and in Chicago and San Francisco rather than here:
IBM's Linux ad campaign trips on city sidewalks
Edit: looks like they did it in Cambridge, too
At least nobody got arrested.
By anon
Fri, 10/07/2016 - 5:43pm
At least nobody got arrested. I'm feeling it for this guy:
http://archive.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/new...
Okay. So reading this makes
By maria c
Fri, 10/07/2016 - 5:24pm
Okay. So reading this makes me question how cheap they are when it comes to the safety of and research done on whatever dry eye drug they are peddling. LOL remember the "plastic surgeon" who was too cheap to pay for an office so she met her clients in low key motel rooms to inject the magic inflatable special sauce into women'd butts? Funny but scary, too.
Changed the original post
By adamg
Fri, 10/07/2016 - 8:34pm
Deleted the reference to Shire being too cheap to advertise on TV, because a charming fellow, using all sorts of charming words about me, informed me that, in fact, they have a lot of TV ads, all featuring Jennifer Anniston, which I found surprising since, based on what I've read of her (on the front pages of the finer periodicals on sale at the local supermarkets), I thought she was now in her 215th week of pregnancy.
Begun, the chalk wars have.
By anon
Sat, 10/08/2016 - 8:31am
.
This is nothing
By anon
Sat, 10/08/2016 - 9:13am
Those clipboard alleged charity assholes and other sidewalk con artists are a far bigger problem.
I also suspect many who are whining about this think graffiti 'artists' are cool, and if they saw some, say, political statement vandalism they agree with, they would have no problem with that.
And I suspect
By adamg
Sat, 10/08/2016 - 9:23am
You're wrong.
While their tactics can be aggressive at times...
By ThatGuyFromRoxbury
Sun, 10/09/2016 - 2:56pm
...those so-called "charity assholes" are legitimate and actually collect/campaign for some pretty decent causes. I've stopped and talked to them on a few occasions when I've had the time. More often than not, they're college students being paid minimum-wage, or they're straight-up volunteers standing on the corner because they believe so much in the cause.
Not everyone standing on the street asking for a moment of your time is trying to con/swindle you, as hard as that must be to comprehend.
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