Jackass No.2 - Be a Jackass for the Day

The Brief

In the run up to Universal Pictures’ release of Jackass 2 we were approached by the promoters. They believed that, though a television and print campaign had already been launched, a film like Jackass 2 with its huge appeal to a young and predominantly male market required a more direct, exciting marketing element.

The Activity

We knew that the best course of action would be to create some guerrilla publicity. Consequently we arranged to “crash” five local radio stations and, live on air, present the DJs with their own special Jackass Award. Key 103 (Manchester), Kerrang Birmingham, Kiss 105-108 (Norwich), Plymouth Sound and Juice FM all took part and our Jackass Crew spent up to 2 hours on air with the DJs at each station creating a buzz around the film, hosting prize giveaways and phone-ins all intended to raise awareness for the live campaign. Simultaneously street crews engaged in Jackass-style stunts with the general public as well as giving them the opportunity to win some great prizes.

The Results

These efforts gave the Jackass 2 launch excellent free publicity. Both on the radio where 350,000 listeners were reached - crucially the appearance of the Jackass crew was within editorial rather than in an ad break – and also on the street where a footfall of over 420,000 were reached with over 10,000 leaflets being distributed and thousands of people joining in the games.

Jackass 2 went on to open strongly at the box office in all targeted cities with Hotcow’s work being part of an integrated campaign leading to this success.