Whittaker’s and L&P stunt fizzes up the locals

At first glance it’s a photo so incredible it must have been made up. A Whittaker’s van crashed into Paeroa’s iconic L&P bottle monument. The positioning of the two iconic New Zealand food brands’ logos seem to be right out of a Hollywood movie product placement. It turns out it is too good to be true.

According to the Whittaker’s New Zealand Facebook page, the van ‘crashed’ into the Paeroa monument early in the morning as a marketing stunt promoting a new fizzy chocolate bar.

The stunt had buy in from the highest levels of local authorities, including the mayor of Hauraki District John Tregidga (although he spent this morning playing dumb about the PR stunt).

The Waikato Times reports that the ad agency behind the stunt has yet to clean up the scene (including mowed down hedges) and Tregidga says council staff are tidying up the scene.