If you grew up in the 80’s, the “Ghostbusters” movie was most likely on your Top Ten favorite movie list…and now that the movie is back with a female cast, Sony Pictures wanted to make a big impact with its advertising.  When the movie launched in London last month, a busy rail station was made over to bring the movie to life.  The centerpiece of the stunt was a Stay Puft marshmallow man busting up through the floor, while 26 foot slime poles “dripped” down from the ceiling at Waterloo Station.  At the base of the slime poles, vinyl “drops” were placed, alerting interested passersby of a great spot  to get the perfect angle for a memorable selfie.  Some of the walls were also wrapped to look like a station in New York, where the movie is set.  Eerie music was piped through the station to round out the atmosphere.

The brains behind the stunt were folks that grew up fans of the original “Ghostbusters” movie, now working for the ad agencies JCDecaux and Feref, which partnered with Sony Pictures for the campaign.  Stacey Knight, Director at JCDecaux Blue, says the team’s light bulb moment came at the beginning of the talks with Sony. “This is where we can actually make mine, and I’m sure so many other people’s, childhood dream of being an actual Ghostbuster come true,” Knight said.  “Thus, we landed at the core idea of creating an environment where the movie was a reality,” Knight concluded.

The decor at the Waterloo Station was just one part of the campaign that ran throughout the UK for the launch of the movie.  Digital screens in malls and other rail stations ran ads promoting the movie. On the JCDecaux digital out of home network, fake news stories of ghostly sightings were aired.

Although it probably goes without saying, people loved the campaign…hundreds of photos were posted on Twitter and videos on YouTube garnered over 130,000 views.

Norwegian Airlines took the announcement of their new flight very seriously.  Rather than employing a traditional form of advertising, like a billboard or magazine ad, the airline’s agency, M&C Saatchi Stockholm, converted a stop on their subway system to look like the Times Square stop in New York.  They went all out…changed signage to Times Square, put up wall advertisements for eateries and other businesses found in Times Square, and even hired street teams to complete the New York atmosphere.

The street teams represented a little of everything found in New York…Spiderman, musicians, dancers, and even a gospel choir.  People who encountered the event seemed to really enjoy it…they lit up social media with the selfies they took with the Naked Cowboy impersonator and the Statue of Liberty, as well as the variety of other unique performers.

The event was a one day thing, despite the colossal amount of work that had to go into pulling it off.  It wasn’t just the below ground station that was transformed, the team even continued the signage and street teams above ground.  A police officer was there to talk about New York City, along with a hot dog vendor as well as signage changes continuing the Times Square illusion.

The event was not only a fun way to reach people, it was also a way to quickly reach a large audience…more than 40,000 people go through the Nationaltheatre Station on any given day.

For Jack Maier, it’s personal. And painful.  But the 79 year old is hoping that by putting his messages on billboards, others may be spared the pain he’s suffered, not only from losing his wife to breast cancer, but also from the molestation he suffered decades ago. Maier said his wife, Myrna, was tested every year.  “I don’t know what happened.  What a beautiful woman she was,”  he said.

In addition to the messages urging women to get screened for breast cancer, Maier has also paid for billboards with messages about sexual predators who target children.  Those billboards bear the message of “Please don’t let another childhood be stolen,” next to a photo of a disappearing child on a swing. Maier only recently began talking about his own molestation that he kept secret for more than 60 years.

He’s funding the billboards with his lottery winnings, which came after he changed his usual numbers by one.  He says he usually plays numbers like family birthdays, his 1970 wedding anniversary and Christmas.   This time though, he says he decided not to play Christmas.  “I changed it to the number 24 and, by golly, three days later, I won it.  Baby Jesus was born on the 25th.  I just felt like he did not like that I gambled,”  Maier said.  He says he will continue to buy billboard space “until he runs out of money.”

Over the years, McDonald’s has come up with some pretty eye catching billboard campaigns, and they seem to like syncing their products with the sun.  Their most recent campaign in Canada features an egg mcmuffin sandwich rising with the sun.  Years ago, they featured several of their menu items on a sun dial. The billboard was positioned to point to the item McDonald’s thought consumers should be eating at that time of day.  The rise with the sun idea actually came from an out of home contest where creative teams proposed ideas for real clients.  The Cossette/McDonald’s team won…they not only got to execute their idea, but they were also awarded a trip to Cannes while the client got $50,000 of ad space.  We have plenty of digital billboards in the Atlanta area as well, so maybe we will see the rising egg mcmuffin here as well.

Now that Southwest has completed its takeover of AirTran, the airline now is focusing on courting Atlanta travelers and getting a piece of Delta’s pie.  A new billboard campaign starts this week around Atlanta, as well as new commercials and airport ads.  One focus of the campaign is the airline’s low cost, low frills identity, compared with Delta’s focus on premium customers.  The ads feature smiling employees and proclaim that the airline doesn’t care if you are “diamond, platinum or pewter, you don’t need miles to earn these smiles.”  Southwest spokesman Brad Hawkins says the campaign “will underscore the commitment we have to win more Atlanta customers.  We provide an alternative.”

Original story from AJC

Billboards are going up all over Atlanta to showcase the Four former Bulldogs in the NFL who will hit the gridiron Sunday night in the Pro Bowl. Defensive lineman Geno Atkins (Cincinnati Bengals), receiver A.J. Green (Cincinnati Bengals), Linebacker Justin Houston (Kansas City) and quarterback Matthew Stafford (Detroit Lions) are featured on the billboard. UGA fans say they think it’s a great recruiting tool and the school should do it more often, since schools in neighboring states are often touting their accomplishments on billboards. The Pro Bowl game is set for 8pm Sunday night.