If you’ve been striving to make your voice heard since Election Day and want to do more, The Standard hotel is offering a lifeline.
The Meatpacking District destination on Thursday introduced a “Ring Your Rep” phone booth that not only is retro chic, but gives guests, staff and members of the public a direct line to the U.S. Capitol switchboard to be connected to their local representative.
The booth will be outside The Standard’s entrance on 13th Street, just below the High Line, “indefinitely,” Corey Tuttle, vice president of marketing and communications said. And if you want to say something, but don’t know what or how, there’s a provided script for that.
Metro: How did the Ring Your Rep booth come about?
Corey Tuttle: We conceptualized Ring Your Rep over the past few months as we’ve seen firsthand how calling your representatives is one of the best ways to get involved and actually make a difference. We wanted to empower our guests and community with the proper tools and a platform to make their voices heard on important issues —whatever they may be.
How has reaction been?
We’ve seen so much engagement already on social media and in the booth — it’s really exciting to see!
How did you decide to include the handy-dandy script for those who aren’t sure what to say?
For a lot of people who want to get involved, the first step is learning how. By giving a step-by-step process, people can discover how easy it is to make their voice heard.
What is the main takeaway you hope the public has with the Ring Your Rep booth?
We hope that guests will take this resource and knowledge and engage with their representatives whether they are at our properties or not.
What went into the booth’s creation?
We have an amazing in-house design team that found an old, unused phone booth and had it refabricated for Ring Your Rep.
Has The Standard ever taken political action like this before?
We saw a groundswell of engagement with political and social issues amongst our staff, our guests and our community following the election. As a brand that values diversity and self-expression, we decided to utilize our platforms and our venues as a place for those people to get involved and be heard.
We designated a section of our editorial website to covering people within our community doing just that, but through a cultural lens that we as a brand inhabit. Working with artists to use our walls as a canvas for their art. Offering our event spaces to like-minded charities needing space to meet.
Do you plan more moves like this?
Absolutely! We will continue to support and encourage whenever and wherever we can. We hope to have a phone booth at every Standard hotel soon.
