Lifting a car is an age-old strongman stunt that never fails to impress, a concept that IronKore Performance Training studio in Toronto took to the extreme this week in a humorous one-day parking lot stunt.

Designed to attract eyeballs to the fitness centre – and hopefully new members – Toronto-based Cossette and IronKore had a luxury sedan flipped on its roof and placed in a parking spot under a sign that said ‘We said NO parking.’

‘You can think of this as classic product demonstration advertising,’ said Cossette co-chief creative officer Dave Douglass in a release. ‘Lifting cars is something that seems to come naturally to very strong people. Our goal was to highlight the strength training programs offered at our client’s facility.’

IronKore’s president, Sharon Dubois, told MiC the stunt immediately exceeded their expectations, helping to bring in six new people to purchase personal training. An additional four people have booked orientation sessions (mandatory for pre-training) and obtained contact info for approximately 12 to 15 people they consider serious inquirers.

‘For a facility such as ours, where a participant’s decision to purchase is usually made more than a week after first contact, this is phenomenal,’ she said. ‘It means we have more than likely peaked the interest of at least triple these numbers in terms of other serious inquirers; those who’ve yet to coordinate logistics to book or attend a session.’