Sony recently staged a stunt at a coffee shop in New York (‘Snice Cafe near NYU) where they had an actor pretend to spill coffee on a girl, who then choke-hoists him up a wall using “telekinesis” (harnesses behind the wall). Get it? Because that’s the plot of their upcoming Carrie remake, sorta.
Apparently this phenomenon is known as “prankvertising”, and according to AdRants it’s much more popular overseas where people sue less. Me, I’m sold. My number one criteria in choosing a movie is always “can the concept be used to f*ck with people on the street?”
I guess “prankvertising” is slightly less obnoxious than viral marketing, but I kind of hate this stuff. Like “ooh, let’s see if we can suck all the mystery and wonder out of the natural universe and condition people so that when anything transcendent happens, they’ll eventually just shrug and go ‘Eh, probably just someone trying to sell me something again.'”
Sort of the way those clipboard people standing on the street have conditioned me to avoid contact with all strangers on the street now. No more pleasant small talk with fellow passersby for you anymore! Do I have a minute to support Greenpeace? Sure, do you have a minute for me to explain how you’ve destroyed the social contract? HOW MANY MEET-CUTES WON’T HAPPEN NOW BECAUSE OF YOU?!
Also, this kind of stuff allows advertising people to infect the natural world with their bullshit, instead of confining it to TV and print and billboards. “Non-consensual advertising” would be a better name for it. And the worst part is how excited they get about it and what geniuses they think they all are. There’s nothing worse than ad people who start believing their own hype.