The Strange, a cosmetics firm identified for its lower-priced, typically single-ingredient merchandise, simply introduced that it was furthering its mission to “take away pointless boundaries to supply accessible, high-quality options.” To take action, it’s providing folks a free shuttle bus that runs between Williamsburg’s Domino Park and Prospect Park in Brooklyn, New York.
The corporate claims that The Strange Bus, which can function from Might 26 by June 6, addresses a transit hole that may typically contain a 50-minute subway detour by Manhattan.
The tenuous parallel with the corporate’s skincare line is that it additionally supplies a no-frills resolution to a typical downside (unhealthy pores and skin).
In actuality, what The Strange is providing is much less an answer to a fragmented or sluggish public transit system and extra an answer seeking an issue. Commuters within the space have entry to a number of public buses to get between the parks, and the G practice subway line supplies a straightforward trip between each neighborhoods, although it gained’t be operating for 10 weekends this summer time. (The Strange didn’t present remark by time of publication.)
On social media, commenters piled on, rapidly mentioning that the corporate created a bus route for higher-income, gentrified communities that don’t want the help (there are many different communities within the borough that do). Understandably, The Strange needs to make use of its marketing {dollars} to achieve prosperous potential prospects in Williamsburg. However the advertising stunt goes sideways when the corporate begins framing its branded bus as an precise public service.
Currently, it appears as if firms have developed a advertising savior advanced. In February, the prediction market firm Polymarket opened a grocery retailer within the NYC neighborhood of Tribeca, the place customers may gather objects without cost. The stunt was meant to attract consideration to the rising price of products on account of inflation. On the similar time, its prediction market competitor, Kalshi, launched an identical pop-up retailer, with the corporate protecting as much as $50 price of groceries as a commentary on the cost-of-living disaster.
Each performed on the actual fact the shoppers are struggling to afford primary items and utilizing that reality as a cultural anchor to promote their services. Neither made precise progress on the issue they set out to attract consideration to.
This isn’t the primary time the Estée Lauder-owned firm—which generated roughly $213 million in direct retail income final yr—has shone a lightweight on financial points confronted by New Yorkers. In March 2025, the corporate offered a dozen eggs in its NYC shops for $3.37 to attract consideration to the rising value of eggs. It didn’t actually transfer the needle—at the moment the average price of a dozen eggs in New York state is $4 to $6.
