SEATTLE —Just weeks after three barnacle-encrusted billboards were pulled from the bottom of Puget Sound, restaurant operator Ivar’s Inc. is honoring the promotions spelled out on those possibly decades-old advertisements.
The mystery surrounding the billboards, and whether they were ordered sunk 54 years ago by the company’s prankster founder for the benefit of Elliott Bay submarine commuters who never materialized, remains to be solved, according to company officials. Those officials, if talking with tongues planted firmly in cheeks, were not letting on. —Just weeks after three barnacle-encrusted billboards were pulled from the bottom of Puget Sound, restaurant operator Ivar’s Inc. is honoring the promotions spelled out on those possibly decades-old advertisements.
As indicated on the billboards, the promotional offers available through Nov. 22 include a bowl of chowder for 75 cents, which is down from the regular prices of $3.29 at the company’s 27 fast-casual seafood bars and $3.95 at its three dinnerhouses. Also being offered is a free child’s menu entrée, normally priced from $4.95 to $7.25 depending on the concept visited, with the purchase of a regular entrée. —Just weeks after three barnacle-encrusted billboards were pulled from the bottom of Puget Sound, restaurant operator Ivar’s Inc. is honoring the promotions spelled out on those possibly decades-old advertisements.
The tale of how the undersea billboards were discovered and recovered to inspire the promotions is fantastic. But consider the source. —Just weeks after three barnacle-encrusted billboards were pulled from the bottom of Puget Sound, restaurant operator Ivar’s Inc. is honoring the promotions spelled out on those possibly decades-old advertisements.
Seattle-based Ivar’s has a history of pranks and promotional silliness that stems back to its founder, the sometime jingle-crooning Ivar Haglund. The late Haglund was well-known for stunts, including his arrival at the scene of a syrup tanker car accident in boots holding a plate of pancakes at which time he advised curious rubberneckers to “Eat at Ivar’s, we don’t skimp on the syrup.” —Just weeks after three barnacle-encrusted billboards were pulled from the bottom of Puget Sound, restaurant operator Ivar’s Inc. is honoring the promotions spelled out on those possibly decades-old advertisements.
Even after its founder’s death in 1985, Ivar’s has entertained its home market with, among other things, an annual July Fourth waterfront fireworks show, which was put on hold this year because of the recession. The enterprise is also renowned for humorous, clam-strewn TV commercial parodies of popular movies, including “Chariots of Fire,” “Back to the Future,” and “Dances with Wolves.” —Just weeks after three barnacle-encrusted billboards were pulled from the bottom of Puget Sound, restaurant operator Ivar’s Inc. is honoring the promotions spelled out on those possibly decades-old advertisements.
Now comes the tale of the submarine billboards that, according to Ivar’s president Bob Donegan, began with a May discovery by historian Paul Dorpat, who is chronicling Haglund’s life. —Just weeks after three barnacle-encrusted billboards were pulled from the bottom of Puget Sound, restaurant operator Ivar’s Inc. is honoring the promotions spelled out on those possibly decades-old advertisements.
He said the researcher found documents in the company’s Pier 54 archives suggesting a basis in fact for rumors long circulated that Haglund was behind an underwater-advertising initiative. —Just weeks after three barnacle-encrusted billboards were pulled from the bottom of Puget Sound, restaurant operator Ivar’s Inc. is honoring the promotions spelled out on those possibly decades-old advertisements.
Armed with multiple documents, including a map with seven undersea locations marked in red and billboard blueprints, Ivar’s asked the diving and salvage ship Prudhoe Bay to look into the matter, Donegan said. The Prudhoe Bay team pulled the first board up from the waters near Alki Beach on Aug. 21, he said, and retrieved two more at different sites about two weeks ago. —Just weeks after three barnacle-encrusted billboards were pulled from the bottom of Puget Sound, restaurant operator Ivar’s Inc. is honoring the promotions spelled out on those possibly decades-old advertisements.
Donegan said the discoveries set off an avalanche of activity, as the company had the billboards delivered to a restoration specialty company, began looking for ways to confirm their authenticity and planned how Ivar’s would honor the promotions highlighted by the signs. Budgeting $100,000 for a campaign running through mid October, Ivar’s also has begun running prime-time local TV commercials about the billboards. —Just weeks after three barnacle-encrusted billboards were pulled from the bottom of Puget Sound, restaurant operator Ivar’s Inc. is honoring the promotions spelled out on those possibly decades-old advertisements.
Starting late this month, Donegan said, the company will begin a billboard-themed contest linked to local radio and TV spots in which contestants must correctly answer questions at the company’s
The story of the documents and ideas about what might have been going on in Haglund’s mind at the time the billboards were sunk, if at all, have been posted in an “Ivar’s Undersea Discovery” area on the restaurant company’s website. Video clips of the on-water billboard recovery operations are also found there. —Just weeks after three barnacle-encrusted billboards were pulled from the bottom of Puget Sound, restaurant operator Ivar’s Inc. is honoring the promotions spelled out on those possibly decades-old advertisements.
“Is it real?” Donegan asks rhetorically, saying out loud what most people who hear the story want to learn. “We don’t know,” he continued, before adding, “but we decided that it doesn’t really matter, because there is so much community excitement and the offers are so amazing.” —Just weeks after three barnacle-encrusted billboards were pulled from the bottom of Puget Sound, restaurant operator Ivar’s Inc. is honoring the promotions spelled out on those possibly decades-old advertisements.
The Ivar’s executive noted, “If it turns out to be true, we’ll donate the billboards to the Museum of Business & Industry,” or somewhere else appropriate. —Just weeks after three barnacle-encrusted billboards were pulled from the bottom of Puget Sound, restaurant operator Ivar’s Inc. is honoring the promotions spelled out on those possibly decades-old advertisements.
Donegan said that apart from TV and radio spots, the menu promotions and story of the billboards are being supported with website material, Twitter and Facebook activities, and T-shirts for restaurant crewmembers that carry photos of the billboards. On Sept. 21, Ivar’s began peppering replicas of the billboards pulled from Elliott Bay around its home market. —Just weeks after three barnacle-encrusted billboards were pulled from the bottom of Puget Sound, restaurant operator Ivar’s Inc. is honoring the promotions spelled out on those possibly decades-old advertisements.
“We haven’t slept much since this came up,” Donegan remarked about what he maintained was a sense of urgency within his company and among many outsiders that began building when a Seattle Times photographer snapped and published shots of the Alki recovery effort. —Just weeks after three barnacle-encrusted billboards were pulled from the bottom of Puget Sound, restaurant operator Ivar’s Inc. is honoring the promotions spelled out on those possibly decades-old advertisements.
“Paul [Dorpat] said Ivar was struggling with his Ivar’s Pioneer Square restaurant in 1955 when cross-Sound bridges to Bainbridge were in discussion, and at that time Ivar was at his peak of brilliance,” Donegan said in a written statement about the billboards. He added, “Ivar thought submarines would be more efficient than ferries, and plotted routes across the sound, marking seven locations suggesting where billboards were to be placed.” —Just weeks after three barnacle-encrusted billboards were pulled from the bottom of Puget Sound, restaurant operator Ivar’s Inc. is honoring the promotions spelled out on those possibly decades-old advertisements.
Donegan said he and historian Dorpat have reviewed archives from 1953 through 1955 and found clues that indicate Haglund may have been in shenanigans mode when he entertained the concept of undersea billboards for sub commuters.— [email protected] —Just weeks after three barnacle-encrusted billboards were pulled from the bottom of Puget Sound, restaurant operator Ivar’s Inc. is honoring the promotions spelled out on those possibly decades-old advertisements.