Is the "Garden Gnome" a guerrilla marketing campaign?

December 24, 2003 8:53 PM

Faux homemade posters asking "Where is my Garden Gnome" (with the URL of this site) have been popping all over my neighborhood in nyc. On the poster (visible here, pdf) is a toll free number with a funny "homespun" message. This definitely has the feel of some guerrilla marketing campaign. (Who would pay for all those toll free calls...) Or is it some new hoax art project? An (inefficient) email harvester (see the disclaimer on the contact page...)? What? Anyone have any idea? (btw: there was an Oct 28th MeFi FPP about gnomes, but the FPP link is dead... was this related?)
posted by limitedpie to Grab Bag (9 answers total)

Yes, it is a guerilla marketing campaign. But I don't think I'm allowed to say anything about it, as it's my employer. I hope they don't track me down about this. Seriously.
posted by greasepig at 9:48 PM on December 24, 2003

I mean, you can tell it's a professionally done site, what with the fancy tracking javascript stuff in the source. You all would have figured it out soon enough, right?
posted by greasepig at 9:51 PM on December 24, 2003

It is pretty obvious in the quicktime.
posted by birdherder at 10:44 PM on December 24, 2003

Why would he know how the gnome's trip was booked if it was kidnapped?
posted by planetkyoto at 2:18 AM on December 25, 2003

Response by poster: oh greasepig, don't hold out on us! Really, what means more to you: your job and its attendant benefits or metafilter!
posted by limitedpie at 5:24 AM on December 25, 2003

That's a tough one.
posted by greasepig at 10:34 AM on December 25, 2003

You wouldn't be the first to choose MetaFilter...
posted by wendell at 1:05 PM on December 25, 2003

travelocity makes sense. the site's registered to someone at 333 corporate plaza, raleigh. mckinney + silver are there and have travelocity's act.
posted by andrew cooke at 1:25 PM on December 25, 2003

and how's this for a privacy statement, websitewise

My friend's neighbor is a lawyer and he told me that I have to tell you that if you email me and check the box, I'm allowed to email you back. He also said that if you send me an email or leave me a phone message, I'm allowed to put your words up on the site. And you can't sue me about it.

I mean, of course you can sue him/them, you just may not win.....
posted by jessamyn at 10:43 AM on December 28, 2003