Welcome to the froyo district: Guerilla ad campaign criticizes downtown SLO's development
By Hayley ThomasMysterious fliers advertising new frozen yogurt offerings are popping up on empty storefront windows across downtown San Luis Obispo. So SLO Town’s getting more options to satisfy residents’ insatiable appetite for paper bowls full of pastel-colored goodness, right?
Don’t get your hopes up.
The color advertisements—printed on 8.5-by-11-inch paper and taped in rows over for-lease and for-sale signs on retail business windows—feature photos of the icy soft-serve alongside promises of a “Vanilla Privilege Yogurt Club,” “YOLOGurt,” and “Yogeurzberg” coming soon to downtown. All are associated with “The San Luis Obispo Frozen Yogurt Alliance,” and offer up the number of the SLO Chamber of Commerce for more information.
Molly Kern, director of communications and business education for the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce, spotted her first flier on Monday, Oct. 5.
“I was on my way to lunch when I first saw it,” Kern said during a phone interview with New Times. “The chamber is aware of the fliers. They are not related to the chamber at all. We support a diverse mix of businesses downtown that provide jobs and culinary options.”
Since Oct. 5, a range of fliers have been spotted at eight vacant business locations on Monterey, Osos, Morro, Marsh, Higuera, and Nipomo streets.
In an anonymous email statement, the entity behind the fliers told New Times:
“The concept of the Frozen Yogurt Alliance came from the ludicrous ‘Frozen Yogurt District’ in downtown SLO. A crew of like-minded individuals, disgusted with a city that would allow the same kind of business to open up next to an established business selling the exact same thing, decided to comment artistically on this phenomenon. Instead of writing an angry manifesto that no one would read, we decided that laughter would be the best way to show our discontent.”
The email went on to state: “SLO landowners have made it obvious that the only type of culture they want to see is the kind that comes frozen in a Styrofoam cup.”
Although, there is no official frozen yogurt district in SLO, the downtown strip currently offers up several self-serve frozen yogurt options, including four—Bali’s Frozen Yogurt, Teaberry, Yogurtland, and Yogurt Creations—located less than a couple of blocks from each other.
Yogurtland, one of the largest self-serve frozen yogurt chains in the nation, is already open and will celebrate the official grand opening of its first SLO location on Oct. 17 at 847 Higuera St.
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