F.P. SHOCKER: “We made up Kiosk Thursday”
By Fresh Produce
SIOUX FALLS, SD–November 10, 2017–Fresh Produce announced today that Kiosk Thursday—the retail holiday promoted annually by the company for the past five years—is, in fact, a fabrication created by the advertising agency as a muddled attempt to garner positive PR.
Touted as a response to other retail holidays, such as Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday, Kiosk Thursday was—ostensibly—a sales opportunity for vendors who operate without storefronts.
Representatives of Fresh Produce have been quoted numerous times since 2012 describing Kiosk Thursday as “something [they] read about online somewhere.” In light of today’s revelations, it is hard to view these untruths as anything but embarrassing at best, and extremely problematic at worst.
A quick Google search of the term “Kiosk Thursday” yields news story after news story promoting the annual event hosted by Fresh Produce and Ipso Gallery, suggesting vendors were not the only dupes in this scam.
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A Tumblr account previously connected to the URL KioskThursday.com, and purporting to list “Kiosk Thursday Deals” for shopping centers around the Midwest, has also been linked back to Fresh Produce. At first glance, the Tumblr appears to lend the holiday credibility, but a closer look reveals offers from clearly phony businesses.
“It’s true that we made up Kiosk Thursday… but we still think it’s a pretty good idea.”
KioskThursday.com now redirects to an online store selling and giving away multiple products produced by the agency.
Fresh Produce declined to comment, but referred Big News Bear to a brief statement released earlier today:
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“It’s true that we made up Kiosk Thursday, and that we pretended that we heard about it online somewhere, but even though it is kind of fake, we still think it’s a pretty good idea.”
Following the announcement, Fresh Produce has cancelled the 2017 Kiosk Thursday event, originally scheduled for Thursday, November 30.
Had they gone forward with the event, it would have conflicted with another Fresh Produce/Ipso Gallery hosted event, The Big City Premiere of The Bad River Road Show, a screening of the new Rock Garden Tour TV special and SDPB fundraiser.
