Advertisers, rejoice: Apparently people do read the store catalogues they receive in the mail.
Not only that, but they seem to pay attention to the finer details inside.
read more »A 28-year guy named Marc Horowitz who worked as photo assistant during a recent shoot for this fall's Crate & Barrel catalogue, decided to conduct a little experiment and, without Crate & Barrel's knowledge, he found a creative way to sneak his telephone number into one of the photos.
For a picture displaying a home office armoire, he scribbled "Dinner w/Marc" on the whiteboard inside one of the armoire's open doors and wrote his real telephone number underneath. His reason was that the armoire looked a bit bland without it. And well, he wanted to see what would happen.
The picture made it to publication without a hitch.
He thought that it would pretty much continue to go by unnoticed, so imagine his pleasant surprise when his phone started ringing... and ringing... and ringing.
More than 500 telephone calls later, Marc (a bachelor) has 70 dinner dates lined up all across the United States - and that excludes the large number of journalists who've called so far. The dates are with single women or even couples (anyone he finds interesting) and he plans to keep all of the appointments.
Apparently Crate & Barrel was a little upset at first, but they soon came to their publicity savvy senses, and a spokesperson for the chain was quoted as saying that they do have a sense of humour, after all, but that Marc now owe the Crate & Barrel CEO a dinner.
Never one to shy away from publicity himself, it seems, Marc plans to document his dates on film.
When he isn't sneaking his number into home furnishing store catalogues, he spends his time dreaming up and executing other wacky, weird and wonderful stunts and experiments: like running errands in San Fransisco... with a mule and a donkey in tow. Or trying on polo neck shirts while wearing a space helmet. Or how about serving up homemade coffee to strangers in the park? With his coffee maker attached to a very long extension cord running from his apartment kitchen to the nearby park.
One thing's for sure, dinner with this guy certainly won't be boring. If he's not too booked up by now, the boy and I might just give him a call as well.
How about 71 dates, Marc? If during our phone conversation you deem me dinner date-worthy, I promise I won't cook.