BUZZ NEWS

Giant Head Sighted in NYC

I’m sure you remember the pig sandwiched between two NYC buildings from a few days back (from this articlethat caught the interest of quite a few of you and provoked a flurry of comments). That eye-catching advertising was for Crest Glide dental floss. Well, I’d like to tell you about another campaign which certainly has not gone unnoticed. For the launch of Eddy Murphy’s newest film, “Meet Dave” (opening in US theaters on July 11th), 20th Century Fox has come up with a colossal idea. We’re talking about an Ambient and Web Marketing combo, done à la XXL: a replica of Dave’s head. Dave, as you can guess, is Eddy Murphy’s character. We’re not talking about a life-size replica—we’re talking about a 15 ft. tall replica that is being transported around the streets of New York and other US cities. The aim is to let people take pictures of the giant head, as seen here:

The VP of Special Events, Marketing for 20th Century Fox, Len Iannelli, was sure this would be an excellent campaign and that bloggers would start talking about it in no time. And for that reason, she didn’t hesitate to take this giant head out for a walk around cities across the US. This modern-day “olmec" already made its way to L.A., Dallas, Atlanta, Detroit, D.C., and Philadelphia, before finishing its tour in New York.

To viralize this campaign even more, a micro-site was created to invite anyone who had taken a picture inside Dave’s head to send it in. The best pictures will be used in theaters for the film’s publicity posters. Here is a video from one surprised Dave viewer:

This campaign created some serious buzz, which there can never be enough of during movie promotions. Whether you’re a fan of Eddy Murphy or not, you have to admit that this is an excellent way to grab the attention of both the general public and bloggers.