Uber pranks Singapore drivers with carpark ‘choping’ stunt
Ride-hailing taxi firm Uber has revealed itself as the prankster behind a giant box of ‘Chope King’ tissues left in a Singapore parking space.
Uber and creative agency BBH Singapore left the huge tissue packet – commonly used as a ‘chope’ agent to reserve a table or seat in a Hawker centre – in a number of congested parking spots in Singapore’s city centre.
The company then enlisted bloggers such as The Vigilanteh and Michelle Chong to post pictures of the parking space to social media.
Although intended to be a funny prank, Uber said it wanted to send a “clear message highlighting one of the biggest woes faced by Singapore’s drivers: limited parking spaces”.
The move comes as part of Uber’s new ‘Unlocking Cities’ campaign, which aims to reduce traffic in Asia’s most congested cities.
Carried out by Forsman & Bodenfors, the online campaign began with Uber posting satellite image animations on its Facebook pages showing the worst congestion in cities such as Saigon, Jakarta and Bangkok.
The agency then followed up with this video showing people driving round in cardboard boxes in Bangkok.
Due to the expense of owning a car in Singapore, the city hasn’t suffered the same congestion as its South East Asia peers.
However, both the agency and Uber Singapore found a way to drum home the issue by hinging the campaign on parking in the local market.
Uber Singapore marketing manager Stacy Sy said: “Uber is committed to creating better cities through fewer and fuller cars, especially in a small city like Singapore. Chope-King was our way of providing food for thought in a humorous but locally relatable manner, engaging Singapore residents to start conversations around whether car ownership is still a necessity.”
understand the tissue reference….so wtf does reserving a parking space mean? and where are the words that clearly say that this is about starting a conversation about bringing car ownership down?
ReplyIt just looks like some selfish prick trying to hog a parking space…how does that deter me from owning a car. Even the Bodenfors ad is a kind of let down as it kind of struggles to make the point…
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