publicity stunt - The Art of the Prank

November 2, 2013December 15, 2023

Pranks That Sell

From Joe King

Why Terrifying Pranks Make the Best Advertising
by Claire Suddath
Business Week
November 1, 2013

A few weeks ago, a two-and-a-half minute video called Telekinetic Coffee Shop Surprise circulated online. The clip offered a behind-the-scenes look at how a team of filmmakers played a prank on unsuspecting New York City coffee shop patrons by building a fake wall, outfitting an actor with a wire and harness, and then cuing an actress to freak out in public and use her magical powers to suspend the guy in midair. The coffee shop was a real coffee shop”””sNice in Manhattan”s West Village””and the looks of horror on customers” faces were genuine. The prank was funny and fascinating, and has since been watched more than 46 million times on YouTube and discussed on both Good Morning America and CNN (TWX).

It”s also, technically speaking, a commercial. Watch the video here.

carriestunt

The prank and resulting video were a promotional stunt for Sony Pictures” (SNE) Carrie remake; this becomes evident when the movie”s title and release date appear at the end. It was produced by the viral marketing firm Thinkmodo, which in February made a similar promo for The Last Exorcism Part II. In that one, Thinkmodo scared hair salon customers by making the image of a possessed-looking woman appear whenever they looked in the mirror.

On the Today show, hosts Natalie Morales and Matt Lauer talked about the demon-in-the-mirror stunt and then pranked their own NBC correspondents with it. “That”s millions of dollars worth of air time for our client, and it was free,” says James Percelay, co-founder of Thinkmodo. “We figured out a way to get their name mentioned without so much as a media buy.” Continue reading “Pranks That Sell”

October 26, 2013December 15, 2023

Virgin Art Student Promotes Anal Sex Publicity Stunt

Gay Student To Lose His Virginity In Live Sex Performance For Art
Huffington Post
October 25, 2013

A gay student plans to lose his virginity live on stage — all in the name of art.

n-GAY-STUDENT-VIRGINITY-425

Clayton Pettet, a 19-year-old art student at Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design in London, plans to have gay sex in front of a crowd of between 50 and 100 people in London on Jan. 25, 2014, for a project called “Art School Stole My Virginity,” according to the Daily Star. He and his anonymous partner will have sex until completion and then hold a Q&A with the audience afterward.

Read the rest of this story here.

Student to lose his virginity on stage in the name of art, Daily Star UK

Gay Art School Student to Lose Anal Virginity in Front of Class [NSFW], Gawker

October 13, 2013December 15, 2023

Snapple “Real Facts” Debunked

From Joe King:

We Fact-Checked Snapple’s ‘Real Facts’
by Adrienne Lafrance
The Atlantic
October 11, 2013

With 30 seconds and a web connection, you can, too.

snapplecaps-425

Of course a duck”s quack echoes.

But claims to the contrary are so often repeated that the BBC has aired audio proof of the echo, Mythbusters has investigated the acoustics of a quack”s reverberations, and others still have uploaded Internet videos of waterfowl in sound studios selected to amplify the effect.

No matter. The myth persists. It”s the kind of claim that’s repeated as fact but shared like superstition””forwarded in chain emails, published and republished among ZOMG-mindblowing facts, even printed on the cool undersides of bottle caps.

SnappleCap-200 “Real Facts,” they”re called. And though the quotation marks are Snapple”s, not mine, they”re fitting.

Since 2002, the tea maker has been slinging bottle-cap factoids. Some are true, some are outright false, and plenty others are incomplete or ambiguous to the point of absurdity. But it”s easy to pluck out the spurious ones with a search engine and the right kind of bullshit detector. Continue reading “Snapple “Real Facts” Debunked”

October 4, 2013December 15, 2023

Getting Righteous with a Burger

Chicago burger garnished with communion wafer
by Caryn Rousseau
AP
October 3, 2013

burgerw:wafer-200 A Chicago restaurant has cooked up a controversial burger of the month for October, garnishing it with an unconsecrated communion wafer and a red wine reduction sauce.

Kuma’s Corner, a foodie destination with just a few tables, names its hamburgers after heavy metal bands. For October, the restaurant chose to name the burger after the Swedish band Ghost. Members of the band dress in religious robes and wear skeleton face makeup.

It’s in poor taste, said Jeff Young of New Orleans who runs the blog Catholic Foodie.

“It’s not, for us, the Eucharist,” Young said. “However this wafer is a symbol. There’s a cross on it. It’s like taking a flag and burning a flag.”

Luke Tobias, Kuma’s Corner director of operations, said the restaurant never wanted to offend anyone. He said reaction has been a “mixed bag,” but more positive than negative.

Read the rest here.