Billboard put up a single piece of string cheese for trade

If you're going to take out just one billboard, here's a way to get it noticed; offer to sell a single piece of string cheese.

Black Diamond Cheestrings and its agency Broken Heart Love Affair did just that in Toronto recently in an elaborate stunt designed to remind people of their string cheese trading days at school and just what you would give for one.

The brand secretly funded a large billboard that went up in Toronto on Aug. 2. The copy read, "FOR TRADE: One Cheestring. Accepting trades for one Cheestring. Marble flavour. Still in original packaging. No lowballs. I know what I have. 647-407-0938."

In three days, the billboard resulted in over a thousand offers for the SNACK (they included two Persian cats, a broken lawnmower, Shaquille O'Neal rookie cards and a yacht). It also got a lot of media attention, from the likes of the New York Post, HuffPost and CityTV, with several outlets calling the number on the ad. That was answered by an actor, hired by Black Diamond to play a fictional trader called Angel Domingo and play along with the hoax.

"We all remember trading snacks like cheestrings at school when we were kids,” says Jordan Hamer, creative director, Broken Heart Love Affair, in a statement. “We wanted the billboard stunt to help adults remember their fun side.”

The billboard is part of a wider campaign taglined "Keep It Cheesy" which includes a TV ad, seen below, that features office workers all trying to one-up each other on a trade for a cheese string.

The Black Diamond Cheestring brand has traditionally built its marketing around its brand mascot, Cheesy, but worked closely with Broken Heart Love Affair to develop the new strategy, according to Enrique Larez, marketing director at Black Diamond.

"We’ve maintained the magic of the brand that captured our hearts nearly three decades ago. Cheestrings are fun. They represent happiness and silliness, and each peel is really an invitation for play. It gives us permission to bring out the kid in everyone,” said Larez in a statement. “This is just the beginning of a transformational brand platform that will live on for years to come.”