“Oh Lord, this is so absurd!” writes Sonja Srinivasan. “I knew from the moment I saw the word ‘Unter’ that this was the Fake Ad on page 83.”
There were 171 clever Fake Adders who found the ad for Unter, an Uber-like service that would park your car for you downtown and then return it to you when you were ready to leave.
“The premise of ‘just as soon walk as park three blocks from your destination’ reminds me
of a fascinating paper I saw recently,” writes Shoshannah Lenski, who has a broad definition of the word “fascinating.” “Why do travel apps include the time to walk to/from transit stops but not to/from parking?! Maybe a fair comparison would help nudge more transit use!”
“The ad is pure satire,” wrote Daryl Barton, who has creative ideas about how faces work. “It makes one want to cry with one eye and laugh with the other. As a longtime Ann Arbor resident, driving downtown is a challenge and parking is one of the main reasons to avoid downtown. The addition of the bicycle lanes that one rarely sees a bicyclist using plus the pedestrians who dress in all black in the winter and almost jump out in front of one’s car makes driving downtown a nightmare. If ‘Unter’ service actually existed it might prove profitable.”
Julie Broadbent was chosen as our winner, a last name that may have us watching old Benny Hill episodes for inspiration. She’s taking her gift certificate to Zingerman’s.