A Dramatic Surprise on a Quiet Street

I guess you could say this isn’t your usual advert. The advert is for a new drama tv channel which is about to start in Belgium. The creators of this ‘ad’ use the situation of a boring place where nothing really happens to introduce some extreme drama which lasts for about a minute but in order for this drama to start, passer-by’s have to press a random button. The advert makes use of Goldernberg’s Interactive Experiment Template (activation version). After watching and engaging in this experience, individuals are placed in a more thrilling environment. To prevent themselves from continuing on their plain lives they should watch the new TNT drama channel. Because it was filmed and put on the internet the amusement of what has just happened here continues online. More people watch the clip of the ad and the word about TNT spreads. In a way you can compare it to Cadbury’s gorilla ad which purpose was simply to get people talking about the brand. Using this extreme situation people are now likely to talk about the video clip and hence TNT.

Goldenberg, J., Mazursky, D., & Solomon, S. (1999). The fundamental templates of quality ads. Marketing Science, 18, 333-351.