When PR stunts work, they’re amazing. And they great thing about PR stunts is that they work across every industry. The movie industry isn’t exactly shy about self-promotion. After all, the Academy Awards began in 1928 as a way to generate media coverage for the movies and stars of the day.
And the tactic has stood the test of time. Today, well-orchestrated PR stunts can have a major impact on a film’s’ box office success – think The Blair Witch Project.
In this blog, we’ll look at some of Hollywood’s wackiest PR stunts, each of which occupies that thin line between utter madness and maverick genius:
1. Office Space (1999)
Starring Jennifer Aniston, Ron Livingston and Gary Cole, Office Space poked fun at the monotony of the corporate 9-5 lifestyle. In a bid to hype up the movie, the PR team stuck a man in a 12×12 ft glass cube, and suspended it high over Times Square, New York. He was up there for a week, during which time he did some number crunching, filed reports and answered phone calls.
There were a few perks however, as Krispy Kreme delivered free doughnuts and shock deejay Howard Stern sent up a hot massage therapist.
The PR stunt helped propel the film to number 65 on Bravo’s 2006 list of the ‘100 funniest movies of all time’.
2. Devil’s Due
Here’s one baby that no one could call ‘cute’. “Devil Baby Attack,” was a rather mean-spirited if grimly hilarious PR stunt for last year’s satanic horror film Devil’s Due.
The stunt involved an evil robot baby and a seemingly unattended pram in New York. As well-meaning members of the public stopped to check on the baby, it sat bolt upright in the pram.
The promotional prank was a viral sensation. The smartly produced video of the PR stunt notched up more than 50m views on YouTube. Sadly, the film itself only scraped together $15m in the US.
3. Carrie (2013)
To publicise the release of the Carrie remake, the marketing team decided to raise awareness at a grassroots level, with a localised PR stunt.
They set up camp in a New York coffee shop and sprinkled a little movie magic on it. Utilising stunt personnel and movie visual effects, innocent bystanders who wandered in for an innocent cup of coffee witnessed a girl use her ‘telekinetic powers’ to lift a person against a wall, throw furniture around and make books fly.
People’s reactions were captured on film by the hidden cameras. The footage has been viewed almost 64,000,000 times. You can check it out here.
Hotcow is a non-traditional creative agency that specialises in experiential marketing that goes viral. Our campaigns generate buzz through crowd participation, PR and content sharing. Contact us on 0207 5030442 or email us on info@hotcow.co.uk.
