By Dan Werner

“Hey, Rickshaw Willie,” someone calls out as Tim Wilhelm drives his Pedicab down Main Street in Akron, Ohio. It’s a common occurrence these days, as Wilhelm, aka “Rickshaw Willie,” has become somewhat of a local celebrity.

“Everybody has to have their picture taken with Rickshaw Willie,” Wilhelm says. “People are hugging me all the time, and kids will run out to the edge of the curb to high-five me as I drive down the road. Even some local business owners came up to me while I was eating dinner and told my wife that I had become a downtown Akron icon.”

But it was only about a year ago when the 54-year-old Wilhelm found himself depressed and at a crossroads in his life. A truck driver for 31 years, Wilhelm became the victim of a sagging economy when the trucking company he works for merged with another and then decided to take him out of his truck and onto the loading dock.

“It was about the lowest point I had ever been in my life,” he says. “I didn’t know if I’d pull out of the depression, but I’m not a quitter, so I kept thinking about what I could do.”

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Axe, the men’s bodyspray, put together a clever college campus campaign that launched simultaneously nationwide, visiting in total 15 campuses during the famous ‘04 Axe roadtrip. The East Coast division, coached by Manhattan Rickshaw, included wrapping three pedicabs in shiny black vinyl, overlayed with stylish, sharply contrasting decals, and transporting them to Penn State, Ohio State and the University of Michigan to coincide with important college football games. Each pedicab driver sported an attractive Axe black fleece jacket and carried a sound-equipped backpack playing famous soul hits by Marvin Gaye and Barry White. These Axe cabs circled college campuses giving away rides to Axe-friendly passengers.

The perfect advertising platform for the modern metropolitan area is a Pedicab. Main Street Pedicabs is the only company offering national level marketing on pedicabs. We will customize a campaign that will put you in front of your customers. Visit Pedicabvertising to learn more.

Main Street Pedicabs is the market leader and the largest manufacturer of pedicabs in North America and has ownership in operations in San Francisco, Austin, San Antonio and New York City.  We offer advertising opportunities in these and other cities by working with operators who have purchased from Main Street.

We also manufacture the Billboard Bike. Having the billboard in such close proximity to people on foot makes it a unique “point-of-sale” type of media. The same places where pedicabs are the most successful are the places where your business advertising will be most effective. Now you can have the exposure you need by advertising on a Main Street Pedicab!

Content provided courtesy manhattanrickshaw.com.

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