Best show PUBLICITY STUNTS/ ads?

[aces25]

Posted: 12/4/08 at 11:29am

What are some fun, amazing publicity stunts you've ever seen for a show? It can be Broadway, regional, Fringe even, community, amateur, whatever!
Any really fun advertisements too? Like the new 'Shrek' ones?

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 12/4/08 at 11:41am

We have quite a few crazy ones plans for Dog Sees God when we open it in Jan for its first UK production.I will post lots of silly pics lol

[once a month]

Posted: 12/4/08 at 11:45am

When 42nd Street was playing across the street from the then hit Phantom of the Opera, David Merrick had the chorus singing for the TV cameras as they crossed the street between theatres. He also set the beginning time 15 minutes or so after Phantoms to catch the run-off business.

Sometimes the posters are different to draw attention from the other posters. Sugar Babies had a sparkly sandy finish to it.
M Butterfly had a holographic-like buterfly. There's also a series of gold metallic-type posters for Lauren Bacall in Woman of the Year, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby and the first Jerome Robbins Broadway.
Updated On: 12/4/08 at 11:45 AM

[tellybox]

Posted: 12/4/08 at 12:00pm

I vaguely remember reading in a book about a review where the producer looked up names in the phonebook of famous critics, gave them free tickets to the show, then put ads in the paper stating "so-and-so" said this show is great. It was a 60's show. Any help?

Pure genius.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 12/4/08 at 12:02pm

tellybox - That was Subways Are For Sleeping. It was the first show I thought of when I read the title of this thread.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 12/4/08 at 12:03pm

I'm assuming you're referring to David Merrick's stunt for Subways Are For Sleeping. he did find regular people with the same name as famous critics and invited them to review the show. [apparently he had wanted to do it for a while, but knew there was no one else named Brooks Atkinson, so he had to wait for Atkinson to retire.]

per Wikipedia:
"Thanks to photographs of the seven "critics" accompanying their blurbs (the well-known real Richard Watts was not African American), the ad was discovered to be a deception by a copy editor. It was pulled from most newspapers, but not before running in an early edition of the New York Herald Tribune. However, the clever publicity stunt allowed the musical to continue to run and it eventually turned a small profit."

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 12/4/08 at 12:33pm

Merrick had been wanting to try the stunt for some time. It's simply amazing. He gave the "fake" critics tickets to the show and a nice dinner to get them to praise the show.

[philcrosby]

Posted: 12/4/08 at 12:37pm

No one did stunts like Merrick. He was a true showman.

[Link Larkin Wanabe]

Posted: 12/4/08 at 12:59pm

The Toronto run of Evil Dead had some amazing posters floating around the city that were Zombified versions of the Hairspray, Mama Mia, Les Mis and Forever Plaid posters. sheer brilliance, but for legal reasons they had to stop.











Akiva

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 12/4/08 at 1:17pm

The wikipedia blurb is wrong (big surprise!) SUBWAYS recouped 80% of its investment but was still a flop when it closed. It just wasn't the 2-week bomb everyone predicted based on the reviews.

Merrick did a series of ads for 42ND STREET needling otehr shows...

"Why settle for a NINE when you can see a perfect 10?" ran one ad.

The ads for 42ND STREET when it moved to the St. James with an 8:15 curtiain claimed "David Merrick is holding th3 curtain just for you."

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 12/4/08 at 1:21pm

Merrick's SUBWAYS ARE FOR SLEEPING ad...

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 12/4/08 at 3:10pm

On the 46th Street side of the Imperial (circa Dirty Rotten Scoundrels):

Something to the effect of:

"The" "Best" "Musical" "on" "Broadway."

And each one was attributed to a different paper. I think they took the "The" from the NY Times.

[Drunk Chita Rivera]

Posted: 12/4/08 at 3:18pm

I loved some of [Title of Show]'s ads. I really liked the ones outside the theater. Also I like the new Shrek ones.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 12/4/08 at 3:23pm

I personally loved Cubby Bernstein.

Updated On: 12/4/08 at 03:23 PM

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 12/4/08 at 3:24pm

I think it was:
"THE" "BEST" "MUSICAL" "EVER." "REALLY."

I forgot about that...the first time I saw it, I crossed the street to see who said it. It was hilarious.

They also listed (jokingly, obviously) a few dead producers in the list of their producers on their posters and in their Playbills.

[RoxieRose4]

Posted: 12/4/08 at 3:26pm

The Abominable Showman, no one is better that David Merrick.



I suggest anyone who has Netflix to go watch his section of "Broadway: The American Musical".

http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/Broadway_The_American_Musical/70012236?trkid=437879

Updated On: 12/4/08 at 03:26 PM