Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Faux Revolt

Last Friday, I was grabbing a beer with a new departmental colleague, David Terry, when we spotted this San José protest. Folks were chanting, waving signs, and drawing attention to their cause. We had to stop a while and see what the fuss was about.

Problem is: We couldn't quite understand the point of this revolt. The protesters were shouting slogans about "lower dues," which makes sense in a certain way. But then we had to ask: what were they rebuking? What dues? And what's with that other sign that announced, "Downtown Living"?

Then it all became clear. These scruffy looking "protesters" were advertising $270,000+ condos. They were apparently being paid to provoke some sort of rebellious attitude in support of local landlords.

Ah, give me that vibrant downtime life!

3 comments:

Jenny Wood said...

Wow, that's amazing! I don't know whether to be appalled or impressed! And, my goodness - only 200K for a condo??

Lynnae said...

You have to smile at the creative advertising.

highway163 said...

Ooops - turns out the condos are $270,000 and up. Sorry about my initial typo!