MONTREAL – Passerby near Bonaventure Metro station in downtown Montreal were in for a bizarre sight Tuesday morning.
Yellow tape and police cars surrounded an upended red sports car, stuck in an enormous pothole in the road, motor still running.
Montrealers and tourists stood gawking in the rain, all taking photos and videos on their smartphones.
Knowing Montreal drivers (and the condition of some of the city’s roads), the scene on the corner of René Lévesque on de la Cathedrale street is not really a stretch of the imagination. But in fact, that’s just what it is – an imaginative publicity stunt by the ad agency, Taxi.
The stunt was created to publicize an app called Pothole Season. Designed by the advertising agency Taxi, it’s a tool to help Canadians report potholes.
“We’re having fun with it,” says Christian Quenneville, general manager at Taxi Montreal. “It was the tongue-in-cheek idea of one of our creatives.”
Users can access the app via iPhone or the Internet. The free app uses Google Map to pinpoint and tag the exact location of a pothole in any city in the world.
“The app runs everywhere,” says Christian. “We’ve even had potholes spotted at SXSW in Austin, Texas.”
The true genius behind the app is the fact that it sends an email notification the relevant local government office requesting the pothole be repaired. At the moment, these alerts only work in major centres.
“We’re a local Montreal ad agency and the app was created to celebrate our 20th anniversary,” says Quenneville. “It’s a gift to our fellow citizens.”
The app is also an indirect advertisement for Taxi itself, creating a buzz about the possibility of what it can achieve creatively and via social media.
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