The Raw Prawn

This is 3M's new security glass product demonstration/publicity stunt.

They took the side of a bus station in Vancouver, and instead of putting a regular old ad on the side, they encased stacks of dollar bills behind their security glass.

It's very cool, very eye-catching, and they got a lot of free publicity.

There are, of course, some caveats. Only the bills on the top are real money (CA$500 worth), the rest is paper, and if you broke it you couldn't keep it. People were only allowed to use their feet to try to break it (no sledgehammers), and a guard was posted to make sure people followed the rules.

But those kinds of details aren't usually noticed when you're doing a publicity stunt... the idea that this is very strong security glass that 3M stands by was still the focus. Very cool.

Where did 3M get the idea? Whenever someone talks about the value of a product demonstration, the most common example is the extremely successful Corning salesman, whose chief sales tactic was hitting a piece of security glass as hard as he could with a ball peen hammer. He was Corning's top salesman by a large margin, and once he shared his secret, Corning gave ball peen hammers to all of its salesmen. 3M took this tried and true sales tactic, and turned it into a creative publicity stunt. Well done.

(via Marketing eYe)