Mayor Bloomberg yesterday had an unlikely ally in his campaign against smoking: a giant cigarette.
The drug company Pharmacia held a press conference at City Hall to promote its nicotine patch product, Nicotrol.
The pharmaceutical firm hired an actor to wear an 8-foot cigarette costume. Dubbed “Craving Man,” the actor approached a mock smoker and offered him a cigarette. The actor refused and opted for a patch instead.
The “street theater” is part of a national campaign to promote the patch.
“Since Bloomberg is anti-smoking, that kind of seemed like the obvious place to start,” said Kim Whittig, a spokeswoman for the campaign.
The p.r. stunt on the City Hall steps raised eyebrows because it was apparently aimed solely at promoting a product – the nicotine patch.
“That’s not a traditional activity at City Hall,” said Jeffrey Friedlander, a lawyer with the city Corporation Counsel office. “We’ll definitely look into it if it becomes a problem.”
Regulations say that the City Hall steps can be used for “press conferences, picketing, speechmaking, vigils and like forms of expression.”