News

Oooh, creep-out.

A faceless duo shows up at Wimbledon and sits primly, stoically.

There they are again, still in their Men in Black suits, rowing at Henley.

Sex and the City's Kim Cattrall officiates at the summer sale at Harrods and there to greet her, Mr. and Mrs. Stocking Head.

Who are these hollow people, leaning together?

London's Telegraph wonders, seriously: "One theory is that they are a couple of celebrities keen to avoid the glare of the paparazzi lens. Indeed, they seem to have access to some of the most sought-after A-list events." (The eye-less, mouth-less, nose-less couple were also reportedly in attendance at Elton John's white-tie-and-tiara ball.)

The Telegraph quotes a blogger making this observation, "They probably aren't just random people off of the street."

You think?

A website - http://www.facelesspeople.com - offers a teasing line. "True character will emerge in," it says, above a countdown clock that is set to expire next Tuesday. Beneath the clock sits the logo for Lotus, the British car company that has on offer the Exige S240 for a mere $73,995.

Let's guess that, 60 years after the launch of the Mark 1, Lotus is about to unveil the true character of its next-generation auto.

In other words, what we're looking at here is a classic case of stunt marketing, very much in vogue in this era of social buzz.

Is it effective? Sometimes, resoundingly yes.

Sitting on a dappled sunlit patio this week, Tony Chapman recalls the success of the YouTube sensation "Bride Has Massive Hair Wig Out," or, simply, "Bridezilla." Chapman's agency, Capital C, was the creative brain trust behind the stunt, in which an about-to-be-married bride flips out over an execrable hairdo. The video was unbranded and only later was revealed to be a come-on for Unilever Canada Ltd.'s Sunsilk shampoo.

"For $3,000 we dominated pop culture for two weeks," says Mr. Chapman of the massive exposure the stunt drew, including network television in the U.S. and millions of YouTube views. "The magic of it all" - and this is key - "is that it was all based on brand insight, on how women react to bad hair." (Having suffered the lopsided meringue that was "styled" for me on my own wedding day, I can only say that Bridezilla was precisely on message.)

Anthony Kalamut, professor of creative advertising at York University's Seneca College, says that for a stunt to be successful it must be in the "language" of the brand.

An obvious example would be the regional cannonball trials for Trident Splash gum, to be held next week in Calgary and Montreal leading up to the National Cannonball Championship in Toronto in August.

The contests have been so integrated into the brand that Trident's website offers training tips on style, flair and, of course, water displacement. "I am only a believer in stunts that reflect the brand," says Judy Lewis, executive vice-president at Strategic Objectives, the public relations agency behind the contest. "That's why Splash works so well. It integrates the brand name. It's total fun."

At ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky stunts are a key component in creating hoopla, a word the agency cleaves to. Yes, it evokes the era of P.T. Barnum, whose travelling circus famously created the FeeJee Mermaid by grotesquely sewing the body of a fish to the head of a monkey.

CP+B mastered the stunt device in its impeccably executed Subservient Chicken for Burger King, in which an online guy in a chicken suit responds to hundreds of commands. "People thought it was all happening live, and that they were really controlling another person's behaviour from their keyboards," said the agency's founders in a book about the agency appropriately titled Hoopla.

One of Mr. Kalamut's personal favourites was TBWA Worldwide's stunt for adidas in 2003, wherein two soccer players were suspended 12 storeys above the Tokyo streetscape playing a game of vertical soccer. Mr. Kalamut calls it the ultimate stunt, catching the eye of the media worldwide while building the image of soccer in Japan.

Stunts that go guerrilla, however, can be trouble.

Mr. Chapman recalls the furor over the Cartoon Network's promotion for its Aqua Teen Hunger Force in Boston in the winter of 2007. Electronic signboards - think Lite-Brite - were placed in high traffic areas. Enter the Boston bomb squad and a transit shutdown.

"It would be hard to dream up a more appalling publicity stunt," Massachusetts Representative Ed Markey said in a written statement. "Whoever thought this up needs to find a better job." Turner Broadcasting System Inc., the Cartoon Network's parent company, issued an apology. Cartoon president Jim Samples resigned in the middle of the publicity storm.

A month later, Boston again made publicity stunt news when Cadbury Schweppes PLC launched a Dr. Pepper treasure hunt in a cemetery. Not just any cemetery, but the Granary Burying Ground, founded in 1660 and the resting place for, oh, John Hancock and Samuel Adams. "It's an affront to the people who are buried there, our nation's ancestors," said the city's parks commissioner. Said a Cadbury spokesperson, "The coin should never have been placed in such a hallowed site, and we sincerely apologize."

Mr. Chapman's first assessment of Faceless People is a quick "fabulous." It's a little sci-fi, it's mysterious, it's intriguing. But what if it's a stunt promotion for a car company?

"I don't get that for a car," he says. "I would have got that for a clothing company," he adds of the image's potential for drawing the eye to the droids' daywear. "I would have got that for a Workopolis," as in finding a better job for faceless labourers among us.

Mr. Kalamut says the faceless people freak him out a little. So the stunt captures his attention.

But is it effective? He questions the relevance of the Lotus tie-in, if, in fact, the promotion is all about a car. "The Lotus brand is about luxe, power, elitism, speed and performance," he notes. "Nothing mysterious."

Perhaps there's something we're missing. Perhaps there's something more to the campaign. Perhaps the "reveal" will offer up a famous face after all.

The countdown continues.