Local Ad Agency Wants You to Help with Hype

Bostonist likes hustle and self-promotion as much as the next group-authored, endlessly self-referential, first-person-plural-using weblog, but we're not sure how we feel about this: Local ad agency Modernista! (which, in our humble opinion, should really have a ¡ at the front) is trying to hype itself and its signature red exclamation point. To that end (as we learned today from AdRants), they will send you a red exclamation point sticker for free. They want you to place this sticker somewhere, preferably after an M ('cause "M!" is supposed to be the hip shorthand for their hip brand), take a picture of your work, and send it to them. What do you get in exchange? They put your fine photo, along with a picture of you and a link to your website, on an uber-designy, flash-heavy website they've created just for this purpose.

As much as we love the street art, we feel we must mention, as an officer of the court, that placing stickers upon other people's property is a crime in this Commonwealth, as is placing said stickers on historical monuments, county buildings, or playground equipment. Also, we seem to remember AT&T trying to use a piece of punctuation as the centerpiece of its brand identity, and that was wicked-dumb.

There's something else we find perplexing about this buzz-creation technique: How will it really help Modernista!? (And how much do we hate company names with a built-in exclamation point?!) Their clients include the likes of corporate behemoths Budweiser and Hummer. Are the folks who choose ad agencies for those companies really going to swayed by lots of stickers, no matter how hip and ubiquitous? Bostonist isn't so sure. Nevertheless, we'll be looking out for the red exclamation points around town, and might even photograph one ourselves, if only to get on Modernista!'s (yuck) site and get the Bostonist name out to a few more people (which could well double our current readership).