November 16, 2025
If you’re a city or BID looking for an easy, free way to activate local businesses and bring vibrancy to your streets, we’ve got a new campaign that takes just 15 minutes to implement, and it starts in a place most cities overlook: the laundromat.
Story City, in partnership with the globally recognized Human Rights Foundation (HRF), has launched The Dictator’s Laundromat, a GPS-guided, interactive storytelling experience designed to drive engagement to local laundromat businesses (and the whole surrounding area!) while educating residents through satire and play.
This free activation works in any city and is entirely phone-based, meaning no complicated setup or approvals; just place it in your local laundromat businesses, and invite the community to play.
It’s the kind of quick win that can build vibrancy in your neighborhoods and instantly boosts foot traffic. Below, we break down how to launch this activation in 15 minutes, what the Dictator's Laundromat and Universal Adventures are, and why this low-lift tool can be a game-changer for downtown and BID engagement.
Because they’re community anchors hiding in plain sight. The average laundromat welcomes 300+ visitors a day, with dwell times of 2–3 hours. That’s built-in attention just waiting to be activated. This campaign turns a simple poster and a smartphone into a civic storytelling moment that drives people directly into your district’s everyday businesses, no permits, tech integration, or cost required.
When laundromats become destinations, the whole district benefits. Activating main streets (through amenities and activations like the Dictator's Laundromat) leads to increased foot traffic and increased revenues for businesses within the BID or downtown. In other words, a lively laundromat can boost nearby restaurants, shops and cafes as well. This effect is circular, more visitors attract more investment, which further improves the street’s appeal. To sustain momentum, BIDs and city planners should integrate laundromat activation into broader strategies.
And that's where the Human Rights Foundation and the free Dictator's Laundromat activation fit in.
Originally launched as a physical installation at SXSW, this collaboration with HRF transforms a satirical art piece about global money laundering into a digital choose-your-adventure. Players step into the shoes of a fictional dictator, try to “clean” their dirty money through a series of choices, and see how they rank on a global leaderboard, all while waiting for their laundry to finish.
It’s tongue-in-cheek. It’s educational. And it’s a perfect example of what digital placemaking can look like when civic issues meet real-world spaces. With the Human Rights Foundations 1M+ audience leading the charge to your district and placements.
📲 Available on iOS and Android, login and select 'Dictator's Laundromat'.
The Dictator's Laundromat is a Universal Adventure, meaning it can be placed in any city you want, visible to the public. You can drop the activation in your local laundromat one of 2 ways:
📍 Go to the laundromat near you, play the game, then use the Story City app to “drop” a story at your location by marking it as safe for other users. Easy.
📍 Or, if you're in your office, by using the 'Place in your City' button on the overview screen here. Make sure you "Save as Community Route" to make your route publicly accessible to users in the app.
🧺 Hang the hilarious HRF campaign poster in the laundromat you selected in your district to spark the conversation.
📣 We provide ready-made social media copy and graphics for you to promote it below! Share the link and invite residents and visitors to come explore the adventure you’ve created.
Social Media Caption (Copy/Paste to share with your community):
🎭 Something suspicious is spinning through [local laundromat name/s]... and you're invited to do a load of laundry and investigate. Explore [District Name] in a satirical, interactive story about money laundering, power, and spin cycles — The Dictator’s Laundromat is now live! All you need is your phone and a sense of humor.
📲 Download the Story City app to start your adventure for free [LINK]
#DictatorsLaundromat #StoryCity #Explore[CityName] #CommunityAdventure #HRF #humanrightsfoundation @storycityapp @hrf
By following these four steps, you’ll have a fully operational immersive adventure and game in your downtown with virtually no hassle. But what exactly are Universal Adventures, and what makes them such a great fit for city activations? Let’s take a quick look.
Universal Adventures are interactive stories on the Story City app (think Pokemon Go meets storytelling) that can be placed and played anywhere; they’re “location-flexible” experiences. In addition to Dictator's Laundromat, Story City has launched its first batch of these globally placeable adventures (Frightnight Ghost Tours, Spy Academy, and Pirate Captain), with new adventures rolling out every month. For city organizers, this means there’s always something fresh to engage your community, which doesn’t require staffing, or assets to watch, and you can be the first to bring a new adventure to your town. All by supporting your local laundromat businesses and expanding from there.
Here’s how the system works: each Universal Adventure comes with a built-in storyline and set of challenges, but you get to decide the real-world route in your district. Through the app, you pick spots in your city that fit the story (for example, a creepy alley for the ghost tour, or a park for a pirate’s treasure stop). The app then guides players to each location with GPS, triggering story segments and challenges at those spots. It’s like a choose-your-adventure meets walking tour, and you can control where it happens in your district.
Setting up an adventure is incredibly low-lift: all you need is about 15 minutes per adventure, your smartphone, and your local know-how to select fun locations. The platform handles the rest, no tech integration or city permits required. In fact, placing a story is completely free for partners (the app is free to download, and there’s no cost to create or host a route). Once you hit “publish,” anyone nearby can discover and play it using just their phone. Some cities may already have these adventures running, but if yours doesn’t, you can launch one instantly and put your downtown on the Story City map. It’s a turnkey way to offer an interactive and passive vibrancy activations without the usual planning headaches.
Foot traffic is the lifeblood of any downtown or main street. Business districts often look to trendy cafes, shops, or events to draw people in – but one often-overlooked venue for community vibrancy is the humble laundromat. Laundromats may not be glamorous, yet they are steady, essential businesses that attract a regular flow of locals. In fact, there are an estimated 30,000+ laundromats in the U.S., collectively serving over 30 million households annually. These facilities fulfill a basic need and, in doing so, naturally bring people into the area on a weekly (or even daily) basis. By tapping into this unconventional asset using this free Dictator's Laundromat activation from HRF, cities and Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) in North America can increase downtown foot traffic and foster a stronger sense of community.
Whether you choose Dictator's Laundromat, ghosts, spies, or pirates (or all!), the outcome for your district is the same: increased foot traffic and a flurry of social media buzz. These adventures are designed to draw people out and get them walking through your area’s businesses, parks, and public spaces. It’s quick, free for you to place, and instantly boosts foot traffic; truly a quick, easy win for creating downtown vibrancy. Participants aren’t just passing through; they’re engaging deeply with the environment, solving clues at historic sites and interacting with local points of interest. This translates to more dwell time in the district and potentially more customers for shops and eateries along the route.
Meanwhile, the fun and immersive nature of the game prompts players to share their experience online, amplifying your event’s reach. Story City’s adventures include built-in social features (like themed photo filters and hashtags) that encourage players to post about their journey. This kind of organic buzz not only markets your district to a wider audience, but it also showcases your city as innovative and engaging.
The bottom line: with just 15 minutes of setup, you can launch an interactive, passive activation, that creates real-world foot traffic and online excitement for your community. It’s a simple, high-impact activation that city partners and Business Improvement Districts can implement even at the last minute to surprise and delight residents.
Ready to be the hero who brings this adventure to your streets? Download the Story City app, place the Dictator's Laundromat in your local business, and watch the magic happen.
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