Underwater Billboards? They're Suspicious in Seattle

After unearthing plans laid long ago by its founder, a legendary Seattle seafood restaurant is pulling underwater advertising billboards out of Puget Sound—though Ivar’s accompanying advertising blitz and founder Ivar Haglund’s notorious record of self-promotion have residents smelling something fishy, the Times reports. “If I was smart enough to come up with this hoax, I’d be doing other stuff,” Ivar’s president says.

There were seven sites sketched out on maps the company says were recently unearthed at headquarters; three of the 7-by-22-foot, stainless steel billboards have been found, two of the sites yielded nothing, and crews haven’t gotten to the last two. “As far as I can tell, it’s the real thing,” says a Haglund biographer. And of the company’s $100,000 prime-time ad blitz featuring the finds? “Ivar’s decided to do what Haglund would have done,” the president says. “Promote them.”
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