It’s not everyday that one might see a rock climbing wall in the middle of Times Square, and even less likely to see someone actually scaling it!  But that’s what happened this Spring as a promotional stunt for the Toyota Rav4 Hybrid.  The 100 foot, 6,000 pound billboard took months of planning and came down to the wire in terms of getting permits from the city before its debut.

Patricia Turosz is the Director of Client Partnerships at OOHA Wilkins, the agency behind the enormous billboard.  She said the billboard was the “tallest climbing wall in New York City and the first billboard of its kind in Times Square.”  Finding a space that would house the billboard wasn’t easy.  Turosz says, “first we had to find the right vertical space with a static board that could take 3D rock props and then we had to get an outdoor vendor who was willing to allow a person to climb its billboard.”  Apparently several large outdoor companies rejected the project on that basis.

Although the wall was in place for a 4 week campaign, it only had active climbers for 3 days, coinciding with the New York International Auto Show.  The wall wasn’t scaled by just anyone…a team of 3 climbers was put together, lead by David Morton, a professional climber who has scaled Mount Everest 6 times.

Needless to say, the stunt attracted quite a bit of attention from passersby.