David Ortiz Shows Off the JerkyBot, a Drone Snack Tray That Follows You Around

There are lots of current applications of drone technology, but not many of them are very useful to the average consumer. But what’s this? A drone that allows you to literally snack nonstop? Now that’s something plenty of Americans can get behind.

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Traffic Cop Shockingly Lifts NYC Taxi, but It's the Ad Up Top That's the Giveaway

It turns out Thinkmodo can thrill people, not just scare them.

The viral marketing agency, best known for its frighteningly good Carrie and Devil’s Due prank videos, takes a refreshingly different approach with its latest video. It shows a petite traffic cop in New York City arguing with a cab driver—and then, in an apparent act of savage anger, lifting his vehicle clear off the ground.

It is, of course, a prank—though plenty of people in the vicinity were gobsmacked by the chain of events. And turns out the advertiser, car selling app CarLister.co, is visible throughout the video—on the ad atop the taxi itself.

Mashable has more on the making of the video.



Ouija Board Reader Brings Eye-Bulging Terror to This Latest Horror-Movie Ad Stunt

You’re asking for trouble if you visit a ouija board reader. But these poor Brooklynites got even more than they bargained for.

Thinkmodo, the agency behind the Carrie and Devil’s Due virals, returns with its latest sadistic horror-movie stunt, using a fearsome combination of terror—remote-controlled planchette, dead person under the floorboards, woman who can pop her eyes out of her skull—to psychically torment some innocent folks.

The reactions are priceless, and of course that’s what these videos are all about.

Via Unruly.



Latest Horror-Movie Ad Prank, With a Screaming Devil Baby, Is Completely Messed Up

Here's one baby that no one's expecting. "Devil Baby Attack," a rather mean-spirited if grimly hilarious marketing stunt for the upcoming horror film Devil's Due, shows what happens when well-meaning New Yorkers try to check on an unattended baby carriage.

Here's what happens: They get screamed at by a horrific demon infant. And sometimes chased around by the horrific demon infant's remote-controlled stroller.

Sure, the prank—by Thinkmodo, which also did last year's super-viral Carrie coffee-shop spot—sparks some fun jump-screams from passersby. But watching the results, it's hard not to think of last year's spot-on parody by Canadian agency John St. about the cruel lengths to which advertisers now seem willing to go.

If we must be subjected to more prankvertising stunts, it would be nice to see ones that punish people for making poor moral choices rather than watch normal pedestrians get tormented because they tried to check on a screaming baby left alone in the snow.

Via Mashable.


    

Meet Andrea Morales, the Screaming Star of That Crazy Carrie Video

Ten days ago, she was another mostly unknown actress in New York City. Since then, 40 million people have watched her scream her lungs out and lift a grown man halfway up a wall with her telekinetic powers. Now, USA Today has tracked down Andrea Morales, the star of ThinkModo's super-viral coffee-shop prank for the horror movie Carrie. She's obviously over the moon about how the video has taken off—in her words, it's been "absolutely insane." Here are a few excerpts from the Q&A:

On the audition:
The title of the audition notice online was just "a marketing video for an upcoming movie." And it didn't say what it was for or what movie it was for — nothing. My agents were leery, because it was very vague. It's because the company that made the video, ThinkModo, they pride themselves for keeping things very under wraps — very secretive until the video launches. Then everything goes insane, which obviously works very well for them. They were like, "We're sorry, we can't tell you what this is for. … Just pretend you're really upset, and just scream for us for a really long time."

On her scream:
That's just how I scream. But I went to grad school [at the University of Missouri-Kansas City], and we had, interestingly enough, a segment on screaming — learning how to scream properly, learning what different screams could mean. So if you're on a roller coaster, your scream tends to go way up in register, and if you're really upset, you tend to go lower. So I channeled my lower register scream. And they were like, "Can you scream for, like, 15 seconds … I mean, for a really long time?" And they weren't kidding.

On her victims:
What would happen afterward is, James [Percelay], one of the directors, would yell, "Cut!" And then everybody, including myself, would clap. And the customers would be like, "Oh, my gosh! That's crazy!" It was almost like the TV show, Punk'd. Most everyone laughed or stayed … and chatted a bit. Then they'd sign their nondisclosure [agreement] saying they wouldn't tell what happened in the coffee shop. To my knowledge, everyone left happy [and] thought it was great, that it was hilarious. They were really great sports about being scared for a little while.

Read more about Andrea on her website.


    

Horror-Movie Stunt With Freaky Telekinetic Girl Is Frighteningly Good

Prankvertising can be annoying. Aggressively messing with people for questionable purposes is, after all, obnoxious behavior. But when it promotes something that is intended itself to be scary, it can be irresistible.

In that vein, Thinkmodo is getting rather good at public horror-movie stunts. First, it got a creepy chick to literally bend over backwards in a beauty salon for The Last Exorcism Part II. Now, it gets another creepy chick to show off freaky telekinetic superpowers in a coffee shop for Carrie—the upcoming horror film based on Stephen King's 1974 novel.

The looks on the patrons' faces are priceless. (For a change, it's not difficult to imagine these are real people, rather than actors.) Not insignificantly, the stunt ties seamlessly into the product, too—terrifying people also happens to be the point of the movie. 

And there's a levity here, too—unlike, say, stunts for flat-screen TVs that make you think the world is ending.


    

Man Who Supposedly Lived in the Astor Place Cube Is Just an Ad for Something

Surprise. That video about a guy living inside the giant metal cube at Astor Place was a marketing stunt all along. And by surprise, we mean, of course, duh. No New Yorker could live in that thing—it's way too big.

Still, a couple of bloggers got suckered into writing about the documentary-style spot as though it might be true. Maybe if they'd been real journalists they would have viewed it with more skepticism. Just kidding. Real journalists are super gullible, too.

Other, rational people, meanwhile, instantly recognized the clip—which features a writer supposedly crammed into a DIY hipster's version of a collapsible Ikea home—as an ad. For what? Nothing you've ever heard of: Whil, which is a free, anti-technology meditation technique created by the founders of Lululemon Athletica. Now you've heard of it, so we guess the spot, created by the viral ad pranksters at Thinkmodo, worked.

The video itself is kind of charming. The 60-second meditation technique, meant to be quick and easy for anyone to practice, also sounds nice. But really … who has the time for that?


    

Shocking Attempted Murder Turns Out to Be Just Another Marketing Stunt

So, you're feeling kind of blah and waiting for the elevator and sipping your latte, and the door opens and some guy is choking some other guy on the floor, and you're just like, Whatever, it's probably some stupid marketing stunt for some indie gangster movie because oh my god even these nontraditional ads are getting so tired.

Viral marketing agency Thinkmodo—the professional ambushers who also did the Beauty Shop Scare video that we posted last week—says this latest clip shows regular bystanders, not actors, happening upon what appears to be an attempted murder, and that every precaution was taken to ensure the safety of all parties involved. The clip, promoting the movie Dead Man Down, your average underworld revenge fantasy rom-com starring Colin Farrell and Noomi Rapace, features such choice responses to the crime-in-progress as beating the attacker about the head with a bouquet of flowers and spraying both him and his victim with a fire extinguisher. Because everyone knows if you see a person being strangled, don't panic—just reach calmly for the nearest fire extinguisher, remove the pin, stand eight feet back and aim at the base of the strangling while squeezing the handle and sweeping the hose from side to side.

There's also a lot of staring awkwardly and then scurrying away, and one guy who takes a picture—all masterfully emphasized to produce amused incredulity and Internet bravado among the YouTube masses.

Despite the creators' claim that it's not manufactured, it's pretty hard not to imagine the movie's lawyers getting a nasty ulcer over this—unless it was staged. As one random, surprisingly level-headed YouTube troll put it: "I hope you guys did this experiment in a state that doesn't allow concealed carry, I would have shot that mother fucker." Because where's the fun without a little debate.

Dead Girl Haunts Beauty-Salon Patrons in Chilling Stunt for Horror Movie

Scaring the crap out of people in their everyday lives is horror-movie marketing 101. There are countless examples—my favorite probably being the old Ring Two stunt that sent people a link to the trailer and then called their cell phone with a petrifying message right afterward. This new video from Thinkmodo for The Last Exorcism Part II is pretty solid, too. They rigged up a mirror at a beauty salon to show fleeting glimpses of a dead girl—clearly unnerving the unsuspecting patrons. Some of them seem more unsuspecting than others, actually, and there's not much point to the profanity—it seems a little gratuitous. Still, the ending is spectacular—as the girl behind the mirror puts her extreme flexibility to good use in an homage to the movie's poster. It's undeniably freaky, and understandably sends the patrons scattering.