The Tour de France
In 1903, Henri Desgrange was working for the French newspaper L’Auto. Their rival paper, Le Velo, was the talk of the town, and he didn’t like this one bit. To raise his paper’s profile, Desgrange organised a bike race around France. The stunt worked, putting Le Velo out of business. 120 years later, the Tour de France is still going.
The McWhopper
Back in 2015, Burger King attempted to quash its long-standing beef with McDonald’s by allowing one restaurant to be operated by staff from both companies where they could sell the McWhopper. All the proceeds would be donated to Peace One Day. McDonald’s declined the offer but Burger King got all the coverage they needed.
Airbnb’s Big Gay Stay
At the 2015 Sydney Mardi Gras Parade, Airbnb promoted a special competition called The Big Gay Stay. The winners would get to spend a romantic night in a float with a harbour view before they could move on to the parade festivities. Needless to say, the comped glitter cannon inside the Airbnb enticed thousands.
The Michael Jackson Giant Statue
To coincide with the launch of Michael Jackson’s 1995 album HIStory (on the cover of which he featured as a giant statue), real-life giant statues of the singer were produced by Sony to the tune of $30 million and erected throughout Europe. Did the ‘King of Pop’ really need this level of promotion? No. Did it work? Yes.
Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty
The Campaign for Real Beauty was a novel idea at the time. Most toiletry adverts, most adverts in general, featured waif-figured models. Dove decided it was time to highlight women of all shapes and sizes with their 2003 campaign, featuring six non-famous women in their adverts. It boosted sales by 700%!
The Blair Witch Project
Here’s something you couldn’t do today: convince hundreds of thousands of people on a “found-footage” horror. Back in 1999, The Blair Witch Project was sold as the “real video diary” to various colleges, spearheading the movement of what we now call viral content. Shot for around $60,000, The Blair Witch Project grossed $250 million globally.
PT Barnum’s elephants on Brooklyn Bridge
PT Barnum was infamous for the lengths he’d go to plug his circus. One of the wackiest (and possibly cruel) was when he paraded a troupe of elephants across Brooklyn Bridge in May 1883. The stunt showed the public that they had nothing to fear from Barnum’s circus.
Tiger playing golf on a helipad
To launch the Dubai Desert Golf Classic in March 2004, organisers tipped off the media about Tiger Woods practising a tee shot from the helipad of the Burj Al Arab, the world’s tallest free-standing hotel. Of course, none of this was natural. Woods had been paid $1 million to compete in the tournament.
The Hollywood sign
Once upon a time, Hollywood wasn’t the hot real estate area it is today. Developers decided to erect a 50ft high billboard titled ‘Hollywoodland’ to make a statement that would attract people to the area. It had nothing to do with the film industry. Not for a long, long time.
The Olympic Torch Relay
The Torch Relay is a national parade of the Olympic torch prior to a Winter or Summer Games. Vaguely inspired by events from Ancient Greece, it’s more of a PR stunt these days than anything. People flock in their thousands to get a passing glimpse of the torch being held by a B-list celebrity. Why? Nobody will ever know.
Sex Pistols signing to A&M Records
In 1977, the Sex Pistols were the hottest thing on the UK music scene. They had spiky hair, they swore on television, they were totally out of control! To mark their new deal with A&M Records, the band – who had gotten hounded for their song God Save the Queen – signed their contract in front of Buckingham Palace.
Asda’s free eye tests for the Swiss
After Swiss referee Urs Meier had disallowed Sol Campbell’s obvious goal for England against Portugal in the quarter-final of Euro 2004, effectively leading to England’s elimination, British supermarket Asda offered free eye tests to Swiss citizens. Those Brits and their sense of humour!
American Tobacco’s Torches of Freedom
In 1929, the American Tobacco Company was tasked with rebranding cigarettes as a symbol of freedom for women. Employee Edward Bernays sent some young models to march in NYC’s Easter Sunday parade and told the media they would be lighting the ‘Torches of Freedom. The next day, the New York Times printed: “Group of Girls Puff at Cigarettes as a ‘Gesture of Freedom’.” Sales of Lucky Strikes doubled!
Calendar Girls
In 1999, 11 members of a Yorkshire Women’s Institute stripped off to create a calendar that would raise money for charity. In the pictures, they were obscured by flower arrangements and newspapers. A whopping 800,000 copies were sold worldwide. In 2004, their story was turned into a movie.
Virgin Atlantic trolling British Airways
Sir Richard Branson is no shrinking violet. You pitch him a PR stunt crazy enough and he’ll do it the week after. When rival airline British Airways ran into trouble constructing the London Eye, Virgin crashed their press launch by flying a blimp over the site reading: “BA CAN’T GET IT UP!!”
Greenpeace scaling Christ the Redeemer
In 2002, Greenpeace activists abseiled the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio De Janeiro to protest the results of the World Summit on sustainability. The environmental organisation have become legendary for their stunts, such as fitting gas masks on statues across London over scaling the Shard.
WWF’s Earth Hour
In 2007, 2.2 million people turned off all non-essential lights in Sydney, Australia to mark Earth Hour. The next year, landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge and the Coliseum were plunged into darkness. By 2015, 172 countries and territories took part in Earth Hour. That’s a total of 10,400 landmarks!
Uber’s Ice Cream delivery
When Uber first launched, it faced many problems, mostly regulatory ones. In 2012, to counter the criticism, Uber noted the hottest day of the year and announced they would deliver door-to-door ice cream. The stunt worked, though Uber has had to do it every year since. Last year, 252 cities took part.
Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade
Over 3.5 million New Yorkers line the streets for the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. In 2015, 23 million viewers watched at home on their TVs. It was originally created in 1924 to draw attention to the NY department store. Macy’s employees walked six miles in fancy dress, accompanied by animals from the local zoo.
Pepsi turning blue
When Pepsi changed their colours from red-and-blue to electric-blue, they struck a deal with Air France for Concorde to be re-sprayed in ‘Pepsi Blue’ and flew in journalists from 40 countries to document the stunt. Models Cindy Crawford and Claudia Schiffer also attended, which helped.
Marilyn Monroe’s Seven Year Itch
The shot of Marilyn Monroe taming her billowing skirt was not some accident caused by passing traffic. It was during a photocall for The Seven Year Itch, in which her skirt is blown up by a street gate gust. In the photocall, however, a wind machine was hidden beneath the street gate to capture the perfect (seedy) moment!
Red Bull’s Space Jump
Back in 2012, Felix Baumgartner became the first human to break the sound barrier when he fell 23 miles from the Earth’s stratosphere. The stunt was conceived, produced and broadcast by Red Bull. Arguably the greatest PR stunt of all time, the YouTube livestream was watched by 8 million people.
Vita Coco’s Pee tweet
When MMA fighter Tony Posnanski tweeted Vita Coco, “I would rather drink your social media persons p**s than coconut water”, the company replied with a picture of their social media representative Lane Rawlings holding a jar of urine captioned “Address”? Needless to say, it went viral.
Tinder’s Swipe right to adopt a dog
What’s better than swiping right on potential suitors? Swiping right on potential pets! In a way. Back in September 2022, the dating app launched a campaign for animal rescue by matching singles up with dogs that needed adopting. Within a single week, over 2,000 pets had found new owners.
MusicMagpie’s Mount Recyclemore
To celebrate the 2021 G7 summit in Cornwall, Mount Rushmore was recreated using discarded electronics. The faces included guests such as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, American President Joe Biden and former German Chancellor Angela Merkel. It highlighted the volume of waste and how important recycling is.
BBC’s Death by Chocolates
To create a buzz around the final series of Killing Eve, the BBC sent out boxes of chocolates to influencers that were jokingly branded as a gift from the murderous Villanelle. Some of the chocolates were said to be laced with poison. In actual fact, they were spicy at best, but the campaign worked.
TacoBell’s Taco Liberty Bell
On April Fool’s Day 1996, Taco Bell announced they had bought the Liberty Bell and planned to rename it the ‘Taco Liberty Bell’. The fake news sparked a huge reaction, with everyday Americans discussing the move. Taco Bell proved that any press is good press, raising the level for every other fast food chain.
Papa Johns’s Papa Bowls
Pizza is great, but eating a whole pie of dough can be taxing on your energy. Papa John’s capitalised on this reservation by introducing Papa Bowls, trays of popular pizza ingredients and topping, minus the bread base. It was a great way to provide ingenuity to a very minimalist and traditional dish.
National Geographic’s Public T-Rex
Who doesn’t love a big dinosaur, besides 99% of the characters in Jurassic Park? National Geographic lit up the public’s eyes with their passing, wounded T-Rex. Generating a heap of conversation and engagement, they managed to remind everyone just how influential they are when it comes to the animal kingdom.
NowTV’s giant sexy statue of Jeff Goldblum
To commemorate the 25th anniversary of Jurassic Park, NowTV decided to erect a massive statue of Jeff Goldblum posing from a still of the film. The image, in which the actor lays seductively with his shirt undone, had gone viral on social media in the months prior to the stunt. The statue weighed 331 pounds in total, was over 9.8 feet high, and was nearly 23 feet long.
Carlsberg’s ‘best poster in the world’
In 2015, Carlsberg unveiled the ‘best poster in the world’ on Brick Lane in London. This wasn’t your typical paper-and-paste billboard. It dispensed free beer. Simple concept, amazing execution and something that clicked with fans and neutrals alike. #probablythebest generated over 3 million Twitter impressions in just one day.
Warner Leisure Hotels’ anti-age gin
Warner Leisure Hotels knew what they were doing when they teamed up with Bompas & Parr to create the world’s first “anti-ageing gin” back in 2016. Called the ‘Anti-aGin’, the drink’s ingredients include collagen and a variety of antioxidants and so-called skin-healing botanicals to help “reduce cellulite and sun damage”.
Cadbury’s Crème Egg café
The Cadbury’s Creme Egg cafe ran from January to March 2016 in Soho, London. Made up of three floors, customers could swing by and indulge their chocolate cravings and then some. If they so fancied it, they could also jump in a ball pit and splash around. Fun and interactive!
Ghostbuster’s Marshmallow Man at Waterloo Station
In time for the release of the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot, Waterloo Station hosted a giant version of the famous Marshmallow Man greeting grumpy customers in the popular London train station. The stunt went down a treat, with thousands posing and uploading their photos next to the big guy.
Diesel’s “knockoff” store
In 2018, a knock-off store appeared on New York’s Canal Street called Deisel, allegedly selling counterfeit Diesel goods. Plot twist: the whole thing was set up by Diesel themselves as part of a PR stunt! The clothes turned out to be the real deal.
Domino’s tweet for pizza
In 2015, Domino’s announced that US customers would be able to order a pie by simply tweeting the pizza emoji. Obviously, it wasn’t so simple. Customers still had to register online beforehand and decide their topping preferences. Still, the stunt got huge numbers of people talking – or tweeting.
Deliveroo’s homage to the Friends meat trifle
To celebrate the 14th anniversary of Friends ending in 2018, Deliveroo paid homage to one of Rachel Green’s famous food disasters. Yes, the meat trifle. Mixing lady fingers, jam, custard, raspberries, beef sautéed with peas and onion, bananas and whipped cream, the “meal” was available to order via Deliveroo’s Regina Philange pop-up shop for a limited time.
KFC’s edible nail polish
KFC in Hong Kong created two edible nail polishes to drive home the company’s slogan “Finger Lickin’ Good”. The flavours of these polishes were based on the brand’s two favourite recipes, Original and Hot & Spicy. Somewhere in them were 11 herbs and spices, all top secret of course.
The police’s fake art exhibition
In 2010 at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, the Metropolitan Police Service’s Art and Antiques Unit – yes, it is a real thing – staged a fake exhibition. They did this in order to raise awareness of the methods involved in detecting and then preventing a sophisticated, intricate art forgery.
A nude Gail Porter on the Houses of Parliament
Back in 1999, Gail Porter was voted FHM Magazine’s 8th Sexiest Woman of the Year. As part of a publicity stunt, a 100ft naked picture of Porter was projected onto the houses of parliament the same year. The model later revealed she had no idea about the stunt.
