Gah, PR stunts. How we wring our hands on whether to give them free coverage. The people at Barclaycard have caught us in something of a pincer movement, though, with two unusual gimmicks to launch their new contactless card.
First up, 10,000 people will get a free lunch today, as the promotional teams hand out sandwiches and snacks at major locations such as Canary Wharf, Liverpool Street and Oxford Circus. To claim your freebie, just find one of the teams and try out the PayTag, the new contactless way to pay.
And to celebrate (i.e. make doubly sure of press coverage), they've also commissioned artist Carl Warner to build several London landmarks from out-of-date food: a Shard of bass, an Olympic stadium of green beans and cocktail sausages, a pretzelly Big Ben and a Gherkin made of melons (not gherkins). Alas, the structures aren't on public display. Given the heat, the Shard of sea bass would be a bit of a stinker by now.
