Tag Archives: Advertising

January 30, 2012 · 10:00 am

Georgetown’s Vintage Wall Advertisements

It was recently suggested to GM that he go out and document the vintage wall advertisements that are scattered around Georgetown. (A topic that has attracted plenty of attention in other cities). GM could only find three still around Georgetown, but here they are preserved for posterity.

The one above is located on Wisconsin Ave. just south of Dumbarton. It is for the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., a concern better known as the A&P. It’s still around, but they’re struggling and recently filed for bankruptcy protection. Where they used to spread from New England all the way to the south, the few remaining stores are mostly in the north. GM’s not sure if there ever was an A&P in Georgetown.

The next ad is on the side of 3112 M St. It appears to GM to be an ad for Quaker (as in oats). The line across the top appears to say “The World’s Greatest” (although the last word looks at lot more like “Greanast”). Continue reading →

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January 5, 2010 · 10:01 am

New Billboard Almost Certainly Breaking the Law

GM was out on M St last weekend walking over to the Georgetown Running Company to pick out some new running shoes when he came across the garish billboard seen above. It’s been applied to the windows of the currently vacant space between North Face and the (also vacant) Philadelphia Cheesesteak Factory. The building is owned by East Banc.

The ad is for a beer called “Landshark Lager” an Anheuser-Busch beer made for Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville restaurant. While the yellow parts of the sign above are plastic adhesive signs, the black rectangle is actually a big screen TV playing ads for the beer:

This sign almost certainly breaks the law. While some building can get away with huge signs announcing their impending opening (like there was at the North Face store) this doesn’t appear to be announcing any new establishment. That is, at least GM hopes it’s not. We don’t need something as incredibly cheesy as a Margaritaville in Georgetown. Continue reading →

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July 31, 2009 · 10:00 am

Marketing Georgetown

This month, the Georgetowner has an interesting piece about the internal skirmishes at the Georgetown BID over the proper approach to improve the business climate in Georgetown. According to the article, two camps emerged over the $5 million budget in particular:

Few disagreed that marketing is essential to Georgetown’s business campaign. The line in the sand is drawn, however, over how exactly these funds should be appropriated. The resulting skirmish looks microcosmically like a Congressional budgetary war, with one side advocating greater revenue, the other more judicious spending of present funds.

By the end of the meeting, it would appear the first side carried the day; by strawpoll the group decided to reconsidered (upward)  the tax assessment structure.

While they are considering their marketing budget and strategy GM has one suggestion for the BID: Update your webpage and initiate an integrated advertising campaign. Continue reading →

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