Insane PR Stunts for Movies
In the year 2013, there were more than 680 movies released in Hollywood alone. I don't know what the numbers were in Bollywood, or our own film industry. But I think it's safe to assume that a large part of the gynormous digital media that's engulfing us these days is mostly motion picture. Films are an integral part of our life. And economy, of course. But with so many movies being released each year, how can one possibly predict which movie is going to take home the biggest sack of cash? Widespread belief dictates that film industries reserve accolades for the art-house, surreal movies, while money is mostly harnessed by the star-spangling, CGI-boasting, cleavage-featuring ones. Even then, it's hard for a producer to know if their one chick-flick is going to outdo the rest of the chick-flicks being released in the same season. Marketing teams have to be smarter now to make sure that their films get more attention than the others.
And in this pursuit to draw more attention towards their productions, teams of various movies have brought out some impressive marketing stunts. Viral videos of atmospheres recreated from movies in the real world seem to be the newest thing. “Devil's Due” was promoted by letting loose a very realistic humanoid robot on the streets of New York. On a remote controlled stroller, this baby sprang up to life, crying, howling, vomiting, making inappropriate hand gestures to innocent bystanders. Needless to say, this terrifying trick did wonders and was turned into a video that went viral. Something similar was done for the 2013 remake of “Carrie”, where a scene was set up in a restaurant with the help of actors and mechanical tricks to make regular customers and passers-by believe that a girl was telekinetic and having a mental breakdown. Objects flew and crashed into walls to the angry wails of a freaked out woman, people fled for their lives, and all of it made a video that conquered the internet.
Such successfully accomplished creative undertakings got a Bangladeshi movie fan (me) thinking: what would we do for PR stunts?
What if there was a high-budget action movie about a fiery female protagonist, unabashed by criminal dangers and unafraid of death, about to hit theatres nationwide? Would the producers of this film set voluptuous women in leather outfits and (fake) guns out on the streets to scare real-life thugs to death? Imagine the good it would do to this mess of a city. Thank God for leather pants.
And what if it's a social movie that we're dealing with? Let's say we have a movie named “Refrigerator”, set in an imaginary village that does not allow the use and enjoyment of refrigerators. For the marketing, the producers could strike a deal with the concerned authorities to make sure that the refrigerators in every house on an ascertained street or block stop working for a few hours, with just a few days on hand before the auspicious release of the movie. Imagine the publicity that would be. Imagine the crowd that will erupt from that area to storm towards the theatres. Probably to burn it down.
And then there are the movies of forbidden romance behind dancing flowers -- our favourite kind. Something much more would have to be done for these, because so much of this is actually visibly prevalent in this country, mostly under not-so-large trees by dirty lakes and on pavements. If I were coming up with something, I'd take the title of the movie as literally as possible. For a movie titled “Love Doesn't Let Me Study”, flash-mobs could take place everywhere -- malls, parking lots, parks, hotel lobbies, and especially school grounds -- with couples dancing on study-desks and doing away with their books. But of course, such literal translation of names into stunts isn't always feasible, because what if there are movies with names such as “By Force Love”? Oh wait…
Then, there are the movies without which this industry would be nothing -- the one man shows. The films that revolve around the one, hunky, multi-talented hero whose regular visits to the gym and the makeup room make him the unquestionable star. Since their movies are all about them, so must be their publicity stunts. Skydiving from the top of our favorite mall and office tower by the hero himself is a must. To celebrate the strength of their indestructible hearts, open heart surgeries could be aired on TV so that we may have a glimpse of the magnificence that only our heroes can carry.
I know that I'm narrowing down the large range of diverse films that come out of this industry. There are so many more potential stunts that we could execute, all of which I could never note down completely here. But what I really wonder is if our producers and their teams can ever come up with strangely brilliant marketing ideas, like the one that was carried out for “The Book Thief” last year: an edition of The New York Times had two pages that were completely blank except for a link to the movie's website in the bottom. Thousands of dollars spent on literally nothing, on a major daily newspaper. Now that's the kind of marketing that really sticks.
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