The New York Times Spotlights Laurie Cooper's “Sit at the Bar September” Campaign
by ELLIMAN INSIDER TEAM
September 2025
When we saw last week’s The New York Times article “Ditch the Dating Apps. Sit at the Bar”—featuring our very own Laurie Cooper—two thoughts came to mind:
1. We beat The Times by two months!
2. What took The Times so long to catch on?
It stands to reason that Elliman Insider would have the inside scoop on one of its own (see, “New York Real Estate Legend Laurie Cooper Blows Up Online—and IRL!" from mid July), but the venerable Paper of Record is rather late in recognizing the inimitable Ms. Cooper’s emergence as a social media phenomenon.
Admittedly, we were scooped ourselves by the effervescent international magazine Hello, which initially stoked Cooper’s rise to Internet fame when they anointed her the “Viral Queen of NYC Real Estate!”
And Cooper keeps on rising, it seems! To her credit, she has been both intuitive and clever in the ways she is capitalizing on her celebrity. Her son and fellow Elliman agent, Michael, is owed a lot of credit. He was the first to urge his mother to start making videos.
Case in point: the Times article's pretext was “Sit at the Bar September,” Cooper’s current campaign encouraging her audience, mainly women, to put down their phones and go out—alone if need be. “September, October, just get out there, girls! Girls meaning everyone,” she told them in a video got over 700,000 views on TikTok and Instagram combined.
Bars across the city picked up on the smart branding and used it in their own marketing. More importantly, the catchy phrase succeeded in getting the more hesitant of her follower base to act on her suggestion. And kudos are owed to The Times for identifying and talking with some of them—including the PR professional who brought a dystopian novel about dating to Chelsea Living Room and, sure enough, connecting with a prospective love interest over pickle martinis.
“That romantic New York City, my-life-is-a-movie vibe—taking yourself out, being open to chance encounters and meeting people who you wouldn’t meet on an app—is something that’s been refreshing for me,” the 28-year-old told the reporter.
That “romantic New York City” vibe is hardly something Laurie Cooper needs to be reminded of. As I noted in my profile, her decades of selling real estate have given her truly intimate understanding of this city. Gaining the crucial knowledge about neighborhoods, trends, and style to land a listing is one thing. But to be able to connect with strangers in a way that is spontaneous, immediate, vital, and honest is her great gift.
All the more so that she’s been able to translate that to social media by being utterly genuine, always upbeat and positive. Cooper clearly wants the best for people. She’s also courageous and unstoppable. For someone scrolling through their phone, most likely at home alone and perhaps a little stuck in a rut, that energy—that vibe, if you will—must be inspiring.
There is a lesson for all of us in Laurie Cooper’s success. Yes, she is selling real estate, but she’s also promoting courage, love, and endless optimism—all in a city where everyone, outsiders and residents alike, aspires to those very same qualities.
David Hay is a well-known architectural writer and playwright. His stories have been featured in The New York Times, Dwell and New York.
Related STORIES
