Kleenex Brings Fake Therapist to Times Square for Tearjerker, Gets Hosed

Dozens of people wept on a blue couch in Times Square on Saturday afternoon as the Kimberly-Clark Kleenex "Let It Out" tour and its fake therapist came to Manhattan.

This Kleenex effort to bring online and offline together, has the heavy-handed touch of big agency cluelessness, including a truly lame blog.

According to the Let It Out site:

New Yorkers feel more stressed out (35%) and full of bottled up emotions (21%) than those surveyed in all other cities. (Who you calling up tight Kleenex?)

In spite of their tough reputation, only 43% of New Yorkers often feel confident, the least out of the cities surveyed and much lower than the national average of 52%. (Oh yeah! You calling New Yorkers wimps?)

Adrants reports that Greenpeace activists, protesting Kleenex "supposed less-that-nice use of foresting techniques" showed up and stole the show. Kleenex PR people had little choice but to stand by and let it happen.

What, you might ask, is the difference between Kleenex' stunt and the one pulled by Green Peace? The activists were transparent and entirely open about their intent. Kleenex was trying to get people to spill their guts to an actor so they could include them in TV ads. Maybe I'm a grumpy New Yorker, but I find the latter offensive.