Brooklyn is a brand, and has been for a few years now. That means, of course, that people capitalize on it. Everyone from hideously evil basketball and hockey operations to your average huckster see a way to take advantage of the suckers born every minute. Today’s huckster of the moment is Floyd Hayes, who’s selling…pieces of rocks…he finds in Brooklyn. At least he’s giving a dollar of every sale to the Brooklyn Arts Council.
We’re not joking, Hayes is really just taking rocks he finds on the street, putting them in a lucite case, stamping it “Piece of Brooklyn” and selling it for $4. Which, if there’s ever been better proof of the “fool and his money” axiom, this is probably it. Should you buy one of these? No, you live here, you can get your own stupid rock garbage on the ground. Hell, there’s so much construction going on in front of my building you could probably fill your pockets with broken street.
But should people who can’t find jen-yoo-wine Brooklyn rocks when they walk out their door buy these? Well, Hayes told the Daily News that $1 of each sale is being donated to the Brooklyn Arts Council, which they confirmed, calling the idea “kind of fun, kinda quirky.” Which, we mean, what are they supposed to say? “We think it’s dumb as hell, but shit, we’ll take the money,” is good copy but kind of an aggressive message for an arts charity organization. So if you’ve got a relative thinking of buying this, don’t discourage them, we guess. Of all the stupid things capitalizing on “the Brooklyn brand,” this is hardly the worst offender.
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Thanks for the post. I think you have a fair angle.
I’ve sold 20 of them now, to 11 customers. I’ve emailed them all to say thanks and had some good responses back. One guy bought 10 – told me it was a super cheap xmas gift for his family who are spread out all over the states.
Another customer is based in Ohio, she used to live in Brooklyn and wanted something to put on her desk to remind her of good times.
A Canadian and a Parisian also bought some, thinking it was “just funny.”
I guess people have their reasons, I don’t think it’s a case of “a fool and their money.” As long as people get some sense of enjoyment from it then I’m happy really.
Thanks again,
Floyd.