Marketing Gimmicks

Hotel Restaurant Promotes New Chef With ‘Live Billboard’ (a.k.a. Window Seat)

In a bizarre publicity stunt that probably won’t draw the around-the-block crowds that ’Swich’s 67-cent panini promotion did today, Lily’s, the restaurant at the Roger Smith Hotel, is promoting its new chef, Daniel Moules, via a “live billboard” in the hotel’s art gallery. So what the hell is a “live billboard”?

Basically, at 5:30 p.m. tonight, tomorrow, and Friday, four diners will eat at a lone table in an empty white-walled room, and passersby can observe them through the storefront window. Kind of like a typical night at a failing restaurant, come to think of it — although we’re assured an edgy guerrilla-marketing firm was hired to think this up. Either way! If you’d like to be a part of it, call 917-573-3732 to ask for the window seat — the corner of 47th and Lexington does get a lot of foot traffic, so if nothing else, this might be the place to mortify the tourists with your Halloween costume.

Hotel Restaurant Promotes New Chef With ‘Live Billboard’ (a.k.a.