At this year’s Tour de France, Bottle Boy was a hit.

Bottle Boy represents Clean Bottle, a new reusable sports bottle that unscrews at both ends. The rather simplistic design concept makes the job of cleaning residue out of the bottom of the bottle easy and helps prevent mold, a concern among runners, cyclists, hikers, and other athletes. The product is available through REI and others.

Clean Bottle launched only months ago with a limited budget. So Dave Mayer, founder, built the five-foot-tall Bottle Boy costume and booked a flight to the Tour de France. On twelve of the stages, he ran alongside the slowing riders as they neared the tops of their climbs. Accordingly, he received significant TV airtime.

“The Tour de France is the Super Bowl of cycling,” Mayer says. “By running with the riders I’d essentially get free commercial time focused on my exact target audience.”

However, the daily logistics of lugging Bottle Boy up and down mountain roads was tough. “Driving all night to get to the next stage and then hauling the costume some times as much as 20 kilometers to the top of every climb is a lot of work, but it’s definitely been worth it,” Mayer says.

He blogged here about his experiences at the Tour with humor and humility. Example: “From all the reactions to (the costume’s carrying bag), I’ve now learned how to say, ‘Is that your mother-in-law?’ in French, Spanish and Dutch.”

So far, the plan seems to have worked. “I’ve gone from $4,000 a month in sales to $4,000 a day,” Mayer reports.

It’s going so well, in fact, one wonders if the stunt was truly guerrilla. Given the amount of airtime and mentions Bottle Boy received, could it have been paid product placement?