One day when I was young, I went with my father and some relative to visit a used car lot a long way away from our house. This was the early 80s sometime and the lot was decorated with long streamers of multi-color flags. On one corner, the streamers were tied on just some light pole. But on the other, it was a giant pen. Fifteen feet tall, made of unpainted and rusted iron, it had a four foot wide circular base and was some kind of fancy pen that had obviously been welded up as an advertisement at some time in the past.
I decided then when I got rich, I would collect very large art versions of things and have a special museum built for them. I am still not rich, so you can't visit my museum yet.
True story. At a bar in NOLA in '96 or '97 (Lakeview/Mid-City, not touristy). Midnight-ish. Warm enough to be milling outside. And then the Marlboro van pulled up. Out jumped women in outfits similar to Hooters staff. Handing out free cigarette packs and other swag (I got a CD of background sounds and ambient music from old Marlboro ads, my wife got smokes). The memory is hazy, but I'm pretty sure one of them was carrying one of these lamps to give away too. In decades of telling this story, I have never met anyone who has even heard that there was a marketing campaign like that. But it wasn't a dream ... I still have the CD.
I decided then when I got rich, I would collect very large art versions of things and have a special museum built for them. I am still not rich, so you can't visit my museum yet.
"Yes, I have spoken to the bank."