Anthromorphizing the Velocipede

Leave it to John Rana, over at Who Rides a Vespa, to scoop the Norte Americanos on a neat Vespa ad campaign in our own backyards. Though he blogs from the Philippines, he's only one mentioning these groovy new ads from Vespa Canada for the new Vespa S.

John quotes this article from Media in Canada :

To create buzz for the Vespa S model- a replica of a classic '60s Vespa, with square mirrors and headlights - the Toronto-based Canadian Scooter Company has commissioned eye-catching cutouts. The life-like Vespa-heads are decked out in retro-cool attire like Converse and other in-again brands to play on the notion that it's hip to be square.

The images will be affixed, like wallpaper, at eye level on buildings around Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver. There are four different Vespa-heads in total; they'll appear either as singles or more intimidating "gangs."

"[They're unbranded] to create curiosity and intrigue," says Glen Hunt, creative catalyst at Toronto-based Dentsu Canada, who adds that the images were done by Toronto-based guerrilla artist Faux Reel. "The idea is to bring something attractive to the locations - it's more like art, so people appreciate it." Hunt describes Faux Reel as "the Banksy of Canada," referring to the renowned British graffiti artist. Street teams will be handing out Vespa-head buttons, too, to further leverage the concept.

Vespa is also working with Toronto-based prodco Crush to do a 40-foot outdoor projection of an interactive Vespa-head that turns around to check out and double-blink at passersby. Print and poster executions will also play on the Vespa-head concept, with headlines like "Born to be Square."

The article also goes on to mention this television spot from Vespa Canada:



which I first saw mentioned by Brian over at 2Stroke Buzz.

Actually, I am kinda cursing the Vespa S, as well as the MP3 500 right now. I've been holding off on some scooter blogging, because we are supposed to get our first models of these ANY DAY... for the last month. Though I've already seen both models in the flesh, I can't wait until we some in stock... I mean somebody has to ride them out to the front of the building in the morning, right?