# Your favorite publicity stunt. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 28, 2012, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-publicity-stunt/636087 "2012-09-28T02:07:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mewl\_Dear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Mewl\_Dear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mewl_Dear)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-publicity-stunt/636087/1 "2012-09-28T02:07:41Z")
There are so many. I will open with Let It Be. Open air unannounced rooftop concert by the biggest band ever. Thoughts? ---
**Author:** ![qualityleashdog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/9f8e36/32.png) [@qualityleashdog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qualityleashdog)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-publicity-stunt/636087/2 "2012-09-28T05:36:09Z")
Balloon boy was a nice one to follow. Go get a bottle of Hot Damn! from the liquor store, a six pack of beer, and stay up all night, discussing the moral failings of the Heene family online and why they’re guilty and deserve punishment. That a was a good week. Whatever happened to those screwballs? They’re so yesteryear. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-publicity-stunt/636087/3 "2012-09-28T06:40:43Z")
I’ve seen the Heenes a couple of times on “World’s ‘Smartest’ Inventions”. Someone really needs to get that guy off whatever he’s ramped up on. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-publicity-stunt/636087/4 "2012-09-28T12:43:05Z")
Here’s one of my favorites: [SurvivaBall](http://www.survivaball.com/index.php), dsigned to provide a post-global-warming survivable environment for the airwaves. [The same people](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yes_Men) responsible for SurvivaBall have done a shitload of other extremely successful pranks. My favorite is when one of them conned his way onto the BBC as a spokesman for Dow Chemical, claimed that Dow was going to sell off Union Carbide and put the $12 billion onto assisting the victims of Bhopal chemical spill. Supposedly, Dow stocks lost $2 billion in value in the first 20 minutes after the guy was on the air. ---
**Author:** ![SubaRhubarb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecd19e/32.png) [@SubaRhubarb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SubaRhubarb)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-publicity-stunt/636087/5 "2012-09-28T12:48:11Z")
> **[2007 Boston Mooninite panic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Boston_bomb_scare)** > > On the morning of January 31, 2007, the Boston Police Department and the Boston Fire Department mistakenly identified battery-powered LED placards depicting the Mooninites, characters from the Adult Swim animated television series Aqua Teen Hunger Force, as improvised explosive devices (IEDs), leading to a massive panic. Placed throughout Boston, Massachusetts, and the surrounding cities of Cambridge and Somerville by Peter "Zebbler" Berdovsky and Sean Stevens, these devices were part of a nat... " We do whatever we want, to whomever we want, at all times. Moonitines Unite! Lock in!" ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2012, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-publicity-stunt/636087/6 "2012-09-28T12:57:12Z")
Back in 1992, New York governor Mario Cuomo was contemplating running for president. There was a lot of speculation about what his decision might be. One day, in Albany (the state capital), a billboard went up saying, “Run Mario Run!” Nothing else. Commentators were speculating about who put it up and what group was pushing him to be president. After a week, the billboard was amended to be an ad for the new version of Super Mario Brothers. ---
**Author:** ![Mdcastle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/958977/32.png) [@Mdcastle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mdcastle)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-publicity-stunt/636087/7 "2012-09-29T01:57:25Z")
> [@SubaRhubarb](#): > > [2007 Boston Mooninite panic - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Boston_bomb_scare) > " We do whatever we want, to whomever we want, at all times. Moonitines Unite! Lock in!" Ah yes, the Boston police that can’t tell a Lite-brite from a bomb, (or a breadboard with a couple of LEDs on a girl’s sweatshirt from a bomb. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-publicity-stunt/636087/8 "2012-09-29T02:14:02Z")
To be fair about the Boston bomb scare: This was shortly after 9/11 and two planes originated from Boston, so we were sensitive. ---
**Author:** ![minionkat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@minionkat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minionkat)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-publicity-stunt/636087/9 "2012-09-29T03:59:22Z")
Taco Bell offered [free tacos](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taco_Bell#Advertising) to everyone in America if a piece of Mir hit the target they towed into the ocean. I thought that was quite funny. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-publicity-stunt/636087/10 "2012-09-29T06:15:13Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > To be fair about the Boston bomb scare: This was shortly after 9/11 and two planes originated from Boston, so we were sensitive. Yeah, 2007 was only like a month or two after 2001. And the Pearl Harbor sneak attack probably explains my lackluster Hawaiian vacation in 1998. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-publicity-stunt/636087/11 "2012-09-29T07:07:26Z")
Didn’t the “Lite brite” fiasco happen shortly after 9/11? If not, my contention about Boston’s sensitivity wrt 9/11 stands. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2012, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-publicity-stunt/636087/12 "2012-09-30T05:31:18Z")
Lee Taylor killing himself. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2012, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-publicity-stunt/636087/13 "2012-09-30T05:46:13Z")
Some of Stalin’s show trials of the 1930’s were terrific theater. And Joe McCarthy put on a great show until overwhelmingly poor reviews shut down his act. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2012, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-publicity-stunt/636087/14 "2012-09-30T05:51:13Z")
How could I forget the single greatest publicity stunt in the history of the world, as documented in _Triumph of the Will_ by Leni Riefenstahl --the 1934 get together by you-know-who and a half million of his closest friends. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2012, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-publicity-stunt/636087/15 "2012-09-30T15:07:21Z")
I’ll throw out a personal opposite. Lamest local stunt ever. Back in my hometown when I was a teen we were suddenly inundated with billboard ads (and I think TV, radio and newpaper ones as well). Things like “What is X?”. “X is coming to town!”. “X will be here soon!”. “X will make you blow your wad with joy” (well not the last one). People got a bit interested as well as hopeful. Were we getting a zoo? A sports team? A water park? A new mall? A good business that would bring jobs? Was Ted Turner moving to town? Sure sounded like something halfway decent was going to happen. Oh hells no nothing worth a shit happened. After all that build up the big reveal was the local gas company was reorganizing and renaming itself “X”. And to add insult to injury, everybody that used gas from this quasi monopolistic government business paid for all that stupid shit advertising. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2012, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-publicity-stunt/636087/16 "2012-09-30T16:45:56Z")
The Yippies throwing garbage bags full of dollar bills onto the floor of the New York Stock exchange, from the visitors gallery. Wherein the traders on the floor broke into complete pandimonium! To this day, there is caging up to prevent such a thing ever happening again. And, of course, the attempted levitating of the Pentagon, for which the White House promptly called out the National Guard. It did produce some of the most iconic photos of the 6o’s however, the hippies and the soldiers smiling together, and the flower in the end of a gun, shot. The 60’s were a great time to be alive! ---
**Author:** ![Corcaigh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Corcaigh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corcaigh)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2012, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-publicity-stunt/636087/17 "2012-10-01T11:15:55Z")
A few years ago Vanish ran TV ads where people would be yelling to other people to “hurry up, the new Vanish ad is on!!” and people asking other people “did you see the new Vanish ad?” and falling about laughing. It was very very clever. Sadly their regular ads are a bit rubbish really ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2012, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-publicity-stunt/636087/18 "2012-10-01T13:36:04Z")
Kim Kardashian’s wedding. A year or so of getting a bajillion dollars in free gifts and sponsorships, an exclusive deal for airing the event and then weeks (if not more) of free publicity a couple weeks later when she divorced. And her show is still going strong and she’s still getting paid to stand around at events and look pretty in loaned gowns & jewels so she made out like a fox in a henhouse. ---
**Author:** ![KermitTheFrig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/47e85d/32.png) [@KermitTheFrig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KermitTheFrig)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2012, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-publicity-stunt/636087/19 "2012-10-01T13:46:41Z")
My favorite is from 1842 by the father of the publicity stunt, P.T. Barnum. [The Fiji Mermaid](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiji_mermaid) The man was a master of this art. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2012, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-publicity-stunt/636087/20 "2012-10-01T15:06:09Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Kim Kardashian’s wedding. A year or so of getting a bajillion dollars in free gifts and sponsorships, an exclusive deal for airing the event and then weeks (if not more) of free publicity a couple weeks later when she divorced. And her show is still going strong and she’s still getting paid to stand around at events and look pretty in loaned gowns & jewels so she made out like a fox in a henhouse. Ain’t America Great! Only place in the world where you can have a well-paying job just going to parties and clubs. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-publicity-stunt/636087.md?page=2)