{"id":308618,"date":"2026-07-29T13:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T13:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/308618\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T13:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T13:34:09","slug":"manhattan-25-led-trucks-take-aim-at-google","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/308618\/","title":{"rendered":"Manhattan: 25 LED Trucks Take Aim at Google"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Eyewear brand Blacksheep drove 25 LED trucks in front of Google\u2019s building in Manhattan. The synchronized displays showed a single message: \u201cShame on you, Google.\u201d Blacksheep aimed the protest at what it calls unjustified advertising costs charged by Google.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The dispute traces back to a segment on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.today.com\/video\/glasses-for-the-price-of-a-coffee-inside-blacksheep-265529925951\" title=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NBC\u2019s Today Show<\/a>, which tested an eight-dollar pair of Blacksheep glasses against a 350-dollar model. Blacksheep\u2019s glasses outperformed the pricier competitor in the test. Google searches for Blacksheep spiked after the segment aired.<\/p>\n<p>Technical error triggers 404 page<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The surge in demand gave Blacksheep a leading organic search ranking, according to the company. A technical error then reportedly stopped users from reaching Blacksheep\u2019s website, sending them to a 404 error page instead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Users turned to paid Google ads to find the brand. Blacksheep says this cost the company 80,000 dollars in a single day, paid directly to the search engine.<\/p>\n<p>Google refuses reimbursement<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Blacksheep, Google responded only with standard replies and declined to issue any credit.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_4882-1.jpg\" data-lbwps-width=\"1333\" data-lbwps-height=\"750\" data-lbwps-srcsmall=\"https:\/\/invidis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_4882-1-300x169.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1333\" height=\"750\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_4882-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-59439\"  \/><\/a>Line of LED trucks of Blacksheeps Gurellia DooH campaign in Manhattan (Image: Bruno Gasperini)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cGoogle used its search monopoly to monetize a glitch within its own platform and strip us of the benefits of our own organic success. We will not remain silent,\u201d said Pierre Wizman, founder of Blacksheep. The company is considering legal action, including a possible antitrust claim. Google has not publicly commented on the allegations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The guerrilla DooH campaign builds on the brand awareness generated by the NBC segment. Where viewers saw Blacksheep challenge pricier competitors with lower prices and equal or better quality, the company is now taking on one of the world\u2019s leading tech firms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eyewear brand Blacksheep drove 25 LED trucks in front of Google\u2019s building in Manhattan. The synchronized displays showed&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-308618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}