He’s back…and truly larger than life! As a part of the premiere of the “Ghostbusters” reboot in London, Sony Pictures and its advertising agencies transformed a heavily traveled rail station to look like a New York station and put commuters in the middle of the action. The centerpiece of the stunt at Waterloo Station was a giant replica of one of the original movie’s most memorable characters, the Stay Puft marshmallow man, coming up through the floor.
Although the campaign only ran for 2 weeks, it took 6 months to dream up and become reality. Many employees from the two agencies, JCDecaux and Feref, grew up as fans of the original film and they say that’s what inspired them when tasked to come up with a campaign for the premiere in the United Kingdom. Stacey Knight, director at JCDecaux Blue, says her light bulb moment to “make dreams come true” came early on in the talks with Sony. Knight says she thought, “This is where we can actually make mine, and so many other people’s, childhood dream of being an actual Ghostbuster come true.”
The Stay Puft man wasn’t the only element at Waterloo Station…there were also 26 feet long slime poles “dripping” from the ceiling, with vinyl “drops” of slime on the floor, indicating where onlookers could get a good selfie angle. Eerie music was also piped into the station. But this was just one piece of the campaign that spanned all over London. Digital screens in malls and other rail stations ran ads to promote the movie and fake news stories about ghostly sightings ran on the agency’s digital network.
Needless to say, the campaign was well received and hundreds of photos were posted on Twitter. Videos were posted on YouTube and received over 100,000 views. Local media and advertising trade publications also covered the event.