By Lori Haught
Residents and merchants of Bleecker St. will see no more of the controversial SEE Eyewear ad, which was removed from the future storefront sometime last week.
Richard Golden, founder and president of SEE, said the ad was removed because it was rendered useless by vandalism. The ad had featured a burly construction worker grabbing his crotch with the words, “I got your glasses right here!” A few days after the ad was put up, some person or persons spray-painted over the offending area, then tore it off.
“It didn’t make sense anymore, so our contractors took it down,” he said.
A new ad, which Golden is calling a “response to the stir,” will be up within the week.
“It’s a message to a very few people,” Golden said.
For now, neighboring residents and merchants are happy the ad is gone.
“I’m satisfied that they took it down,” Marco Ticas, from Blaustein Paint and Hardware, said. Ticas was concerned when the billboard first went up because of the street’s high traffic of school children.
Golden said it’s common for SEE to change its advertisements periodically when moving into a new location. This change, however, happened much sooner then planned and the response will not remain up for very long either.
“It won’t make sense to people who never saw the first one,” Golden said. Despite the vandalism and negative feedback, he said SEE did get some positive response about the ad from people who thought it was “funny” and “cute.”
Although Golden was cryptic about the new ad, he inferred that it will be no less controversial than its predecessor.
