Stunt Watch: Firefox's return, World of Warcraft, Channel 4's game show gamble, and Columbia's tin jacket

This week, we’re exploring a number of strange and wonderful stunts.

They include a nature documentary... sort of, a Sunday night game show (or is it?), tinned goods, and a converted cash machine.

But, wait... there's more.

Let's get into it.

Firefox gifts us something old, something new

This is nostalgia overload for middle-aged millennials. And I mean overload.

For the Come Back to Firefox campaign, Mozilla found and reunited the early internet's biggest viral stars, such as the Numa Numa guy, Bad Luck Brian, Overly Attached Girlfriend, and Chuck Testa. There are also cameos by the Success Kid and Judson Laipply of Evolution of Dance fame. Maybe you’re showing your age if you recognise them all, but they all donned their original looks, and with sets recreated, launched on NBC in the US. A UK rollout is said to follow.

Each performer is matched to something that's gone wrong with the internet. Overly Attached Girlfriend wanting to know everything about you, like big tech tracking, and Annoying Orange being annoying, but still less annoying than AI features you never asked for.

It's aimed at people who used Firefox back in the day, but drifted off. This is exactly the crowd that'll recognise and remember every single meme and character. As the kids would say: IYKYK. If you don't, you'll just see a man singing in his bedroom.

But it works because it belongs to Firefox. They were there for that version of the internet, and they're asking you to come back to it in a funny way.

What a WoW, Planet Azeroth

Ahead of the launch of World of Warcraft: Forever (WoW), American video game developer and publisher Blizzard Entertainment has turned Bill Bailey into a dwarf and sent him off to front Planet Azeroth.

In the three-part nature documentary parody, he sets off from the forests of Elwynn to the frozen wastes of Winterspring. The format follows that of Planet Earth, the award-winning nature doc series, usually narrated by a legendary voice.

What I love is that it smashes together two worlds everyone already knows. You don't need to explain the nature doc. You don't really need to explain WoW (well...maybe to your mum).

For players, it's a love letter to a place they've spent years of their lives in. For everyone else, it's Bailey as a dwarf in a video game, wandering through a forest, narrating it beautifully and comedically. Pretty well done – and it does a job.

Forever is about going back to Azeroth, but the doc gets you looking at it like it's brand new.

Million Pound Shock

On Sunday night, Channel 4 aired a shiny, new game show. From its announcement, it was shrouded in mystery. Million Pound Shot, hosted by Bradley Walsh, has contestants risk their own money for a shot at £1 million. On its premiere, one contestant, Reece, got pulled in deeper and deeper as the show went on.

Then, for the real climax. After the ad break, Walsh revealed that it was all staged, much to the audience's shock. Every trick they'd just watched was lifted from the gambling industry's playbook. The contestants were actors. The studio audience had no idea. Reece's story was based on a real story about someone named Patrick, a former teacher, who ran up around £250k in debt during 13 years of gambling.

This felt like how marketing used to feel. A big, brave format that trusts the audience to be shocked. 

No finger-wagging, and no small print about gambling responsibly. It meets people exactly where they are: on the sofa watching a game show, showing the actual mechanics instead of telling them about it.

Casting Bradley was spot on. He's the most trusted face in teatime telly, which is exactly why the reveal landed.

Very well done – and a cause that deserves to be talked about.

A can of... jackets?

We've put a lot of things in tins over the years. We've even had Christmas dinner in a tin. But, I don't think anyone's put a jacket in one... until now.

Columbia Sportswear has sealed puffers into cans, ready to crack open when the weather turns (I'm writing this ahead of election day, so maybe the world has, too). They were launched alongside The Don't Panic Room competition, a chance to win a fully kitted-out 40ft bunker, which Columbia is giving away to whoever sends in the best survival skills video.

The timing is lovely. The government's 'Be Ready' campaign has everyone thinking about what they'd need to get through 72 hours, and if you have ever spent time on the preppers subreddit, you’ll see that Columbia's point is bang on and simple: a cupboard full of beans won't help much if you're freezing.

Topical, fun, and weird enough. Just the right amount of all three.

Coccole, the tiramisu hole-in-the-wall

This next one, I both love and hate.

On Holloway Road, a baker named Francesco Harka has taken over an old cash machine slot and turned it into a hole-in-the-wall called Coccole. From a tiny window, he sells £4 jars of his nonna's tiramisu. He reckons the old ATM spot might bring him some luck.

It is SO North London. 

It's also extremely Arsenal-coded, despite having absolutely nothing to do with the club. The story broke thanks to the fans passing by.

Great for the business, obviously. A cash machine that now dispenses tiramisu is just fun, isn’t it? It goes to show that you don't need a big budget to get talked about.

Article written by Lee Sanders, creative director at Here Be Dragons. First published on PRmoment.com.