A guerrilla marketing campaign tagged downtown Cleveland sidewalks this week with spray chalk advertisements for Erie, Pennsylvania. The ads belonged to VisitErie, the area’s tourism bureau.
Downtown Cleveland Inc.’s ambassadors cleaned up 33 ads this week, the organization said.
“Our Clean and Safe team is always looking to beautify the city whether that is trash removal, waste clean-up, or tag removals,” Downtown Cleveland Inc. spokesperson Julia Matter wrote to Signal Cleveland in an email. “In fact, last year, our Ambassadors removed 2,243 graffiti tags to keep our city clean and safe.”
Cleveland City Hall let VisitErie know that a bill would be coming, according to an email thread seen by Signal Cleveland.
VisitErie CEO John Oliver said the ads were the work of a vendor who has done this style of marketing in other cities. He received an invoice for the cleanup costs and is reimbursing Downtown Cleveland Inc., he said.
“We certainly didn’t want to offend anybody,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll be doing that kind of promotion anywhere in the future.”
Oliver declined to say exactly how much the invoice was for.
“We’re not mortgaging any of our office furniture,” he said. “It was very reasonable.”
There’s a surefire way to make amends here: karaoke and margaritas at the Sloppy Duck Saloon, located just steps from Liberty Park along Presque Isle Bay in beautiful Erie, Pennsylvania.
Then Cleveland and Erie can focus on their common adversary: Pure Michigan.
An early ‘win’ for Blaine Griffin
The middle of June is typically too early for an election night victory speech. But Cleveland City Council President Blaine Griffin can probably get away with it. He’s running unopposed.
Griffin shared a video on social media this week thanking his supporters for signing his petitions to put him on the ballot. Wearing a three-piece blue suit and gold tie, he stood in front of the large “Ward 6” sign that decorates the snack shelves at Meijer Fairfax Market.
“I’m looking forward to another four years of great progress here in Ward 6,” Griffin said. “Similar to what you see right here at Meijer supermarket at 105th and Cedar.”
Any would-be challengers have until June 30 to file as write-in candidates. Good luck. Griffin faced only write-in opposition four years ago, when he won with 97% of the vote.
Back then, he apparently didn’t have to worry about name recognition. He printed campaign t-shirts and yard signs that listed his full name in small letters and saved the large type for his nickname: Griff.
