Hoping to increase awareness for its new, special-edition tC Release Series 4.0, Scion is launching an ad campaign to highlight the fact that most consumers won’t be able to buy one. Called “Out of Reach,” the promotion will feature two interactive billboards placed at street level, one in New York and the other in Chicago, with an image of the car that moves away when people try to touch it. Presumably this simulates the frustration a consumer would feel if they wanted one and found it was sold out.

To ensure that passers-by actually notice this interactive feature, Scion will also place “street teams” nearby to drive traffic to the billboards and encourage people interact with them (because as anyone who’s been to New York or Chicago knows, the locals love being stopped by strangers on the street). Those who do touch the billboard will be rewarded with a guide to “hip” local hangouts, courtesy of Scion.

So what makes the tC Release Series 4.0 so special? First off only 2300 will be made, and the car is chock-full of performance-enhancing features such as a DAMD body kit with unique grill, RAZO shift knob, leather steering wheel, two-tone Alcantra leather seats, and of course the all-important individually numbered badging. So basically it’s a trim package. Also, the car comes in ultra-exclusive Galactic Gray Mica (aka gray) paint.

According to their PR “Scion is very much in tune with its youthful, trendsetting, taste-maker target,” so perhaps they know what makes a standard tC coupe with some easy-to-find aftermarket options “exclusive,” or why telling people they can’t have one would help sales. Then again, it worked for the Wii…

If you’d like to check out the billboards, they’ll be at the corner of N. Rush and Ontario in Chicago from March 15-April 15, and 6th Ave. and 38th St. in New York from March 16-April 16 — just in time for the New York Auto Show. More info on the tC Release Series 4.0 can be found here.

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