IBM Billboards Double as Street Furniture

Is this just another clever advertising trick (which has succeeded in attracting plenty of social media attention)? Or a genuine demonstration of corporate interest in improving public spaces?

However you judge it, this is one product of IBM's People for Smarter Cities campaign. Designed by French creative studio Ogilvy & Mather, the billboards, which can be found in both Paris and London, provide shelter, ramps and benches, all the while sporting the IBM logo.

The advertising world is certainly impressed. In June this year, at the Cannes Lions Festival, the billboards saw Ogilvy win the Grand Prix in the Outdoor category. This award came on the heels of the studio's Brazilian branch's win of the Promo and Activations Lions category for its 'Immortal fans' campaign encouraging organ donation.

IBM is 'calling all doers, thinkers, problem solvers, creators and dreamers' to upload their ideas and projects to the Smarter Cities site. Some of the popular concepts so far contributed include enormous fish sculptures made of plastic bottles, motor vehicles powered by both electricity and wind and 'smart airports'.

[via Coolhunter]