vip in the city

Upper West Side, you rule.

I’m late to the game in posting about this — it’s what comes of being consistently behind on the blog — but I started noticing these controversial Virgin Mobile ads around my neighborhood the last couple of weeks. Richard Branson’s media conglomerate (via their Durham-based ad agency Havas’ McKinney) began rolling out its $15 million “You Rule” campaign in late May to tout its pay-as-you-go cell phone service. Seems the ads are everywhere now: 350 neighborhood-tailored spots around the city – the national campaign launches in July – riling locals in Bed-Stuy, Chelsea, the Lower East Side, Chinatown and others with their neighborhood and borough-stereotype-promoting copy. Love ’em or hate ’em, people are talking. And that’s the point of advertising, no?

So how do those North Carolinians characterize the Upper West Side?

The New York Times reported on how New Yorkers are responding to the ads. (Not so well.) Virgin Mobile’s chief marketing officer is quoted saying, “We’re either equal-opportunity celebrators or equal-opportunity offenders. The reality is that we’re stirring up a dialogue and people are talking about our services.” Unfortunately, some of that talk was over amusingly misplaced ads; the one above, mocking our across-the-park neighbors as “tied down and uptight,” was inadvertently plastered on a few streets on the Upper East Side. Whoops.

Yep, we liberal-thinking, stroller-pushing, moment-siezing Upper West Siders love our parks — even the tiny ones.