Hopping on the anti-555 number trend and in need of promotion for an upcoming art project, Marc Horowitz, while working as a photo assistant during the creation of the latest Crate and Barrel catalog, wrote his cell-phone number on a white board in a shot that made its way into the catalog to solicit calls for his project, The National Dinner Tour whereby he travels the country and has dinner dates with strangers to create a “social sculpture. Page 89 of the catalog features the “Hideaway Home Office” armoire whose open doors displayed the white board on which Horowitz’s number appears. In an interview with New York Observer’s Gabriel Sherman, Horowitz explained, “It was kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing. When I was on the shoot, I saw that I could post my number and thought, ‘Hey, this is free advertising!’ So I jumped on it. The day the catalog came out, my phone started ringing.
It hasn’t stopped since. I have more than 75 dinners set up on this tour; last time, I only did 15.”
Crate and Barrel Director of Marketing and Advertising Kathy Paddor had not heard of the stunt until told by The New York Observer. “This was the first time we heard about this,” she said. “Are we going forward with this kind of marketing initiative? No. This is not something we would go forward with.”
