Ladies and Gentlemen, Let Me Introduce VI Marketing
To Tim Berney, VI Marketing.
CC: Councilwoman Meg Salyer, Oklahoma City Community Foundation director Nancy Anthony.
Tim, I’ve been hearing from readers that they are upset about signs placed along public right of way, and especially in park along Broadway that the Oklahoma City Community Foundation has worked to keep nice over the past several years. You can see the signs in the attached photo.
Doing some digging, I discovered the following:
5320OKC.com
Registrant:
VI Marketing & Branding
125 Park Avenue
Suite 200
Oklahoma City, OK 73102
US
Domain Name: 5320OK.COM
So here are my questions:
- Why is your firm placing paper signs in a city park?
- Are you aware such placement is illegal?
- Do you see any irony with these signs surrounding one placed by Oklahoma City Beautiful declaring this area an “adopt-a-park” cared for by the Oklahoma City Community Foundation?
- Do you believe that placing paper signs illegally in city right of way and public parks is an effective means of promoting a client?
- Do you care about the appearance of downtown and the city?
- What does your firm do to support the goals and objectives of Oklahoma City Beautiful?
- How do you think these signs effect the city’s appearance to visitors?
- Will your firm be collecting and cleaning up these signs at any point?
I look forward to your response. Sincerely, Steve Lackmeyer
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Comments
David, I didn’t see these signs in a park at that time. And yes, I have previously shined my light on this sort of thing before. Not sure I’d call this outrage.
Agree with your goal, but no need to be patronizing by asking ridiculously passive aggressive questions like “Do you care about the appearance of downtown and the city?” The email would have been more effective without such a tone.
You call it ridiculously passive aggressive. I call it a valid question in light of their actions, what I’m hearing from readers.
Difference of opinion, then. It’s simply a useless question, phrased in a patronizing manner, for which you KNOW with 100% certainty you will not receive an answer that enlightens you or your readers. Honestly, if they were to answer your e-mail, what do you expect them to say to that question?
I’ve been seeing these all over the city for the past week. Just a couple of hours ago saw several littering the grassy area adjacent to May Avenue in the Mayfair area (just south of 50th). So very happy to see this practice being questioned. If they show up in our neighborhood median, I’ll personally remove them.
Terri, may want to hold off on removing them yourself unless you are authorized by the City to do so. Some signs that are illegally placed in one area are perfectly legal in another (even if they look identical in placement). Think you might even be ticketed for doing so. Better to report it to the City and let them take care of it.
Steve,
I can’t believe that you are actually wasting space on the internet talking about these paper signs. I constantly see paper signs all over the city for various events, and I’ve never heard any complaints from anyone, including you.
For you to attack a company over one type or placement is ridiculous. It sounds like you have way too much time on your hands.
I’ve heard of VI Marketing – they are a reputable company that has been around for years in OKC – and a valuable part of our business community! For you to attack them over this is unconscionable!
Please get a life.
Dirk DiGarmo
[...] was as good as his word. He fired off a public nastygram to the ad agency in question, to which he got a reply to the effect that “Well, politicians do it.” Now [...]
I can understand a mysterious sign like “2-10-11″ with an Apple/Verizon logo –people get that. With the “5320″ campaign, however, people don’t have a clue what it means. Instead of trying to be ultra-edgy and generate “buzz” VI should be enlightening people. What a monumental waste of time and (presumably) taxpayer money.
I’d say the viral part was fairly effective (have seen the logo in various forms and locations around OKC, yard-signs, billboards, tv ads) – slightly let-down by the fact that’s it’s a health-related promo – to me, it looks more like a grand opening promo for a night-club.
As far as the yard-signs – isn’t removal normally the responsibility of those that placed the sign?
Same company did PR and Marketing for the Big League City Campaign, there were similar signs in similar locations – did you have the same outrage then? I hope you did. Trash is trash, no matter what side you are on.