It was about a year ago that Starbucks subtly pushed our definition of place by advertising the movie "Akeelah and the Bee" in every location across the country, with 6 million people passing through daily. 
That "spot" behind the counter (replicated 5000+ times) became the single most visible billboard in America-- even if there is a weird slippage at work to even call it a billboard, which means thinking of it as a single place. It's more of a network-place, a new kind of place of many places.
So now advertisers have turned the idea (back) on its head, using prime Times Square real estate as a "publishing platform" for user-generated, er, content. NASCAR drives a car up into the middle and thousands of people post pictures and videos of the event on YouTube and Flickr. Charmin offers public toilets. Target suspends magician David Blaine in the air.
But apparently Smirnoff took it a step further, hiring 30 actors as fake protestors in a rally to "save the mistletoe"-- the first action of the "Mistletoe Appreciation Society of America." If the point was to get blog hits, I can't find a single one (this changes that), with the exception of a confused note from this Mistletoe blog. Right. So no pictures of the "protest" to post. But just when all seems lost-- when urban spectacle and viral advertising converge-- you get this, and you remember the point of public space:
(photo by Davina Pardo)
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