Scaring the living Sh*t out of people is the bottom line of horror movie marketing and Thinkmodo is getting pretty darn good at terrifying public PR stunts!
Earlier this year, the viral video agency freaked out beauty salon customers with an elaborate hidden camera prank to promote the release of The Last Exorcism and now it’s at it again; this time it’s unsuspecting coffee shop patrons getting the prankvertising treatment.
Imagine the scene… you’re settled down with your paper, peacefully enjoying a nice latte, when an argument breaks out across the room. A man has spilt a drink over a girl’s laptop and she’s NOT very happy about it. The kerfuffle escalates into a shouting match and all of a sudden the girl flings her arms, appearing to send him flying across the room and smashing into the wall. While shocked customers look on in terror, desperately fumbling for their phones in an effort to record the action, chaos unfolds. The girl starts shrieking, books fly off the wall and tables and chairs shoot across the floor. It’s probably safe to say your relaxing morning has been ruined!
Nope, it’s not an insane IRL demonstration of telekinetic superpowers, just another clever marketing stunt to promote the upcoming remake of Stephen King's legendary 70’s horror flick, Carrie. The video has already clocked up over 15 million views in just two days!
Also trending this week, is the awesome Samsung Smart Watch. Yep that’s right folks: those nifty little wrist gadgets that once seemed simply the stuff of futuristic sci-fi films are finally here!Samsung unveiled its Galaxy Gear Watch last month, but instead of hyping the practical features of the new technology, the brand has opted to market the product by appealing to the nostalgia generated by decades of fictional representations of similar devices in films and cartoons.The two new ads titled, "A Long Time Coming" and "Evolution", invoke some pretty powerful childhood memories. Appealing to gadget fanatics and film fans alike by taking clips from old films such as Knight Rider and Inspector Gadget to suggest that the new device has actually made the fictional objects 'come to life'. It’s a clever way of taking what’s actually a fairly ugly watch and turning it into a coveted iconic symbol of fictional history, telling the kind of story that the internet loves to share.
Also worth a watch on the brand scene… Boston Dynamics has released a video demonstrating the awesome horse power, (ahem, I mean, ‘cat’ power), of the new cheetah robot running machine – it’s pretty amazing, (even if it does appear to be missing its head); Blend Tech is keeping it topical by testing out the iPhone 5s and 5c in the latest installment of Will It Blend; and Paul Frank has gone for a rather novel approach to advertising its new underwear line by dangling a pair of semi naked, adrenaline junkies/ models, thousands of feet in the air between two frozen mountains – who said pants had to be boring!Over in the UGC listings this week, Bristol born street artist, Banksy, has posted a tongue-in-cheek video artwork showing what appears to be a group of Islamist rebels carrying out a rocket attack. Taking real war zone footage and splicing it with some clever Disney style animation, things take a fantastical turn when poor little Dumbo gets shot down from the sky, landing with a mighty crash at the fighters feet. :(
Elsewhere in the listings, its all about the rap battles - with ERB pitching Hitler against Darth Vadar in the third season of historical verbal duals and Rhett and Link tacking the age old question; who is cooler, the Geek or the Nerd?!
And Miley mania continues… The pop star is STILL milking her VMA fame for all it’s worth, parodying her own music video on Saturday Night Live by dressing up as a sexy Michele Bachmann and having a cheeky dig at the US government shutdown. Meanwhile, the haters are STILL hating, as the wrecking ball mashups continue to trickle in. This week YouTube comedian, Bart Baker, has published a biting critical parody of everything that’s wrong with pop culture, naked wrecking ball swinging and sledgehammer licking!
