As Circling the News Circles the Bowl
Early this week, a blatant advertisement for Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” went up on Swarthmore near the Steadfast statue in Caruso’s Palisades Village.
The pink plunger, certainly not the most tasteful piece of advertising presented on the streets of Pacific Palisades, was aimed specifically at voting members of the Television Academy to “consider” the program and its stars for an Emmy nomination.
The Amazon marketing team determined that a plunger, which is used by character Susie Myerson (played by Alex Borstein), would best sway Emmy members, who will vote from June 10 to 24 and nominations will be announced July 16.
Of course, people passing by the plunger had no idea this was an Emmy-related ad, but a few were excited because it presented an Instagram moment. OMG.
Pacific Palisades residents, most of whom are savvy television watchers, are not easily swayed by simplistic advertising propaganda. So, it was not surprising when people quickly started making fun of the plunger campaign on Nextdoor Palisades.
(NOTE: They were NOT making fun of the young woman wearing a 1950s costume that included red gloves, who by standing next to the plunger and perhaps felt she had landed her big break in Hollywood.)
Well, the fun went bye-bye, because a few Nextdoor members thought that the joking residents were once again debating whether Palisades Village is a great thing for our town or something evil. Talk about simplistic – the lovers vs. the haters.
The jokers were not haters, but rather having fun over an obvious advertising ploy, and in this case bathroom humor did apply. The only object that would have been more fun would have been an oversized porcelain stool (with the lid down, of course).
A resident then contacted CTN and asked if it’s legal to mount a plunger on the streets.
Dutifully, I emailed the City for clarification (because that’s what reporters do) and received a response that the question had been referred to Building and Safety, since the plunger was placed on private property.
“The Department of Public Works only addresses permits on the public right of way,” the spokesperson said. “We are still reviewing the issue of the kiosk and will be back in touch with you about that.” (Note: It appears that Rick Caruso forgot to get a permit for the faux LAPD police station that sits on the corner of Swarthmore and Monument. Oops.)
Donna Vaccarino, chair of the Pacific Palisades Design Review Board, said that the commercial advertisement had not come before the DRB, as it should.
Since CTN would prefer not to be branded a hater, just because “girls want to have fun” and say and hear silly things, here’s what I propose.
Any television producers who would like to advertise their show for the Emmys, please contact me. I’m happy to put something up in my front yard for a price (I live on a busy street) – the bigger the better.
Then if my neighbors don’t contact the City, or even if they do and the City just gives me a little warning, I should still make enough to pay for a movie after 5 p.m. at the Bay Theater and even have enough left over for a stiff drink.
OMG — thanks for the laughs!