If you want to get lots of attention quickly for your upcoming horror flick, get a snarling, projectile-vomiting devil baby to cruise the streets of New York City in a carriage and ambush unsuspecting passers by.
That's just was the promoters of "Devil's Due" did recently. And it got tons of attention -- a video of the prank and the horrified reactions of its victims has garnered more than 21 million views since it was posted Tuesday on YouTube.
The video, entitled "Devil Baby Attack," shows an apparently unattended perambulator rolling along streets and sidewalks. Would-be rescuers who peek into the carriage get the shock of their lives as the baby inside the buggy suddenly sits up, an ugly scowl on its face, and screams, makes rude gestures and spews vomit.The stunt was cooked up by Thinkmodo, a New York City viral marketing firm, Yahoo.com reported. That's the same company that in recent years "hacked" Times Square's giant video screens to promote "Limitless" and made it look like people were flying over Manhattan to publicize "Chronicle," among other ventures.
The movie its latest stunt promotes, "Devil's Due," tells about a newlywed couple's unexpected pregnancy and the revelation that the mother is carrying Satan's child, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The 20th Century Fox release is due in theaters Friday.
Thinkmodo hired Creature Effects Inc. to build the animatronic imp and remote-controlled stroller. Three operators were flown in from Los Angeles to operate the creation, one to run the stroller and two to control the robot baby's movements and facial expressions. Hidden cameras captured the fun on the streets of New York.
To the surprise of its creators, none of the terrified victims lashed out at the robot demon or anyone associated with the project, Jeff Beer reported on FastCompany.com.
"We thought that some people would not be happy about being scared and then asked to be in the video -- but that didn't happen," Thinkmodo co-founder Michael Krivicka told Beer. "People were totally cool with being in the video after getting the living hell scared out of them. Each reaction ended with a laughter and everyone loved the look of the baby."
But was it effective marketing? Will Burns, writing in Forbes, said he's torn.
The devil baby matched the movie's theme and was well engineered. Its movements were "pure magic" and the hidden-camera video was well filmed. Mix in people's natural desire to help a baby in need and you've got all the ingredients for a viral video, he said.
But Burns questioned whether it is ethical to prey upon victims "in a way this horrific" to promote a movie. He added:
But worse to me is the strategic problem I have with the idea. How good a movie can it be if, because of this prank, we've already seen the devil child, not to mention the wires and cables that operate it. To anyone who watches this prank, that little monster is now completely demystified and rendered nearly impotent of all its horror.
Here's the video as posted on YouTube:
So what do you think of the video? Please leave a comment below.
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