Great Pointed Archer Society

Status: Undetermined (but probably a hoax)
image Not many people like rats. But the members of the Great Pointed Archer Society do. As they proclaim on their very slick website: The immediate goal of this website is to replace the offensive name ‘rat’ with the untainted, and beautiful name Great Pointed Archer. By doing away with this all-to-common slur, we can begin to repair centuries of disrespect and hatred. After all, it’s not their fault they live in the sewer and eat trash.

It's not clear who's the creative force behind the Great Pointed Archer Society. It seems to be a little too well designed to actually be a society of rat lovers. For instance, compare it to the much less flashy (and therefore more obviously real) Rat Fan Club website. So almost everyone is guessing that it's a stealth advertising campaign whose ultimate object has yet to be revealed. The Great Pointed Archer Society is selling t-shirts (which is always a strong indicator of a hoax), but I can't believe that the entire site was created just to sell the shirts. (Thanks to S.M. Elliott for the link)

Advertising Animals

Posted on Mon Oct 24, 2005


Comments

So, Alex, are you saying rat lovers are not capable of creating a nice web site???? LoL...
Posted by X  on  Tue Oct 25, 2005  at  07:38 AM
Very, very slick website.

Looks to me like Karl Rove's positioning himself for a post-conviction career.

I mean, how different is it from what he's been doing?
Posted by Big Gary in Dallas  on  Tue Oct 25, 2005  at  04:47 PM
I don't know if I think it's all that slick. If you can't bother to spell 'too' correctly, you're not trying very hard.
Posted by tanglefoot  on  Thu Oct 27, 2005  at  02:42 PM
Read the book "Rats" by Robert Sullivan. There aren't "8 to 12 million" rats in New York. More like a quarter of a million or less. Sullivan even explains where the ridiculous "one rat per person" statistic comes from.

I have a feeling the Great Pointed Archer site was created in response to the campaign to change the name of the pit bull terrier to the New Yorkie.
Posted by Elizabeth  on  Tue Nov 01, 2005  at  09:06 PM
They're not selling t-shirts, they're giving them away. I got three this morning at the NYU rally.
Posted by Emily Yates-Doerr  on  Wed Nov 16, 2005  at  11:25 AM
Campaign to drum up business for themselves: Cohn & Wolfe, which is a PR agency. CCD Jeremy Baka says "If we could come up with anything in the world and brand it, could we do it? So, we picked the rat."
Posted by Erin  on  Thu Nov 17, 2005  at  07:58 AM
well. students at NYU were using a giant inflatable rat to protest against certain corporate guys... comparing them with rats... meanwhile there was another inflatable rat at washington square park... question... how is it that "rat loving people", get a permit to gather there.. and not pro-peace activists ?... seems to me like someone with power is placing this people there, to distract the public from the real issue going on back at NYU... in which students catalog some politicians, and corporate guys as RATS !!! (dirty rats...) 😊
Posted by cesar  on  Fri Nov 18, 2005  at  07:19 PM
:coolsmirk:

The straight rat poop is that an ad agency in New York called DiMassimo worked on this with their client Cohn & Wolfe PR to show that Cohn & Wolfe are creative and know how to get buzz. In fact, Cohn & Wolfe did generate a lot of buzz as a Google search will show. I found DiMassimo's name in one article, but I have a friend who worked on the "webmercials" who gave me the inside scoop. Much better than a 30-second TV commercial...
Posted by Dr. Downie  on  Tue Feb 28, 2006  at  05:10 PM
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