Extreme Advertising Turned Landmark

The World’s Largest Tire was transported by train over 40 years ago where it sill stands in Allen Park, Michigan. Locals know the huge artifact from the 1964 New York World’s Fair as symbol of Detroit’s once booming automotive industry. The tire can be seen when driving to Detroit from Detroit Metro Airport.

Like advertising in disguise, few would consider it an 80-foot advertisement for Uniroyal. If it was decided that every roadside billboard was to be removed for a better image most would agree without any thought. If someone decided to remove the big tire there would no doubt be protesting throughout Michigan and beyond.

This 86-foot giant tire, four times that of a standard billboard, has withstood the test of time and shows with some creativity extreme adverting can be much more than effective and excepted – it can become a landmark.

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Brian on June 14, 2009 | Filed Under Advertising, Marketing

17 Comments

Brian  on June 14th, 2009

One more thing, if you want to see a bigger photo of the tire I have it posted on my personal photo blog – PassionatePhoto.com.

Manop from Canon PowerShot Camera Reply:
June 15th, 2009 at 1:46 am

Thanks for a bigger pic. I’m not sure I see the tire in the post. By the way, interesting story.
Manop@Canon PowerShot Camera´s last blog ..EXIF Info : What you should know about it? My ComLuv Profile

Brian Reply:
June 15th, 2009 at 6:21 am

I’m glad you liked it Manop, thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment.

Seo83 Reply:
June 29th, 2009 at 11:57 am

Ya definitely Brian, i wanna see that image, i must visit at your provided link. Thanks a lot for it..

Kikolani  on June 17th, 2009

That’s pretty neat. What started out as advertising has become a photo op for tourists and visitors in that area. What a great way to spread some free advertising by creating a landmark!

~ Kristi

Brian Reply:
June 18th, 2009 at 6:44 am

Hi Kristi, speaking of a photo op for tourists and visitors, as a side note, many are upset with local and MI state police. Anyone caught stopping to photograph the tire are chased away. I’m not sure why but I think they should capitalize on the monument and build a pull off area and welcome visitors. Especially with the very bad reputation of Detroit right now.

Sire Reply:
June 21st, 2009 at 1:28 am

That’s absolutely crazy. Why would they want to do that unless stopping to take a photo created a traffic hazard?
Sire´s last blog ..From Birth To Realization Of The Word My ComLuv Profile

Brian Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 5:41 am

Hi Sire, Stopping there could cause a traffic hazard the way it’s setup now but a cheap pull off area could fix that easy enough.

Sire Reply:
June 28th, 2009 at 3:18 am

There you go mate. Hire a bulldozer, do the work and set up a little area for people to pull over and take photos. Perhaps you can sell coffee and refreshments while your at it with souvenirs on the side. Wait a sec, maybe I should come over and set it up. You reckon the council will donate some land?
Sire´s last blog ..Save Even More Money With eBay My ComLuv Profile

Camping Chair  on June 18th, 2009

nice story and very interesting idea on the MI state police/government capitalizing on it.

Just glad Detroit was not known for hemorrhoid products. But, then again I guess the current design could be adapted… But then it would be on the Beltway in Washing ton. LOL :)

Brian Reply:
June 18th, 2009 at 8:34 pm

Hi Camping Chair, Wow, you slammed the Washington Beltway! Actually, I know the area pretty well and I have to agree. LOL
Brian´s last blog ..Ezine Advertising Myths My ComLuv Profile

Brenda Franzo  on June 19th, 2009

Wow, that’s some tire! Pretty neat… I agree with you, they should definitely build a little pull off area for visitors to stop and take pictures. It’s quite the attraction.

Brenda :)

Brian Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 5:46 am

Hi Brenda, It is pretty cool. Wouldn’t it be a cool thing to own? I would sell monthly ads on it. 5,000/month would get your image/message on the hub cap. :)
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Steve | Trade Show Guru  on July 5th, 2009

Hey Brian,
On your blog homepage, all of your posts seem to start with something like this…

tweetmeme_url = ‘http://extremeezine.com/extreme-advertising-turned-landmark/’;tweetmeme_source = ‘ExtremeEzine’;

I clicked thorough on this post, and it looks fine, but you may want to look at your homepage. I’m using Firefox. ~ Steve
Steve | Trade Show Guru´s last blog ..Does Blogging Regularity Matter? My ComLuv Profile

Brian  on July 6th, 2009

Thanks Steve, It’s the TweetMeme Button plugin. I may need to remove the plugin if I can’t figure out how to fix it on the index page. It seems to work everywhere else but the shows the code on my front page. I appreciate the heads-up.
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Steve | Trade Show Guru  on July 9th, 2009

Hey Brian,
You’re welcome. Looks like it’s still a problem on the front (index page), and gets in the way of reading the post summary.
~ Steve
Steve | Trade Show Guru´s last blog ..Spam My Blog – Win a Free Link My ComLuv Profile

Brian Reply:
July 13th, 2009 at 5:37 am

I moved the ReTweet button to the bottom of each post. That seems to have solved the problem.