Stunt Watch: low-flying planes, flirting billboards and a very expensive bar of soap

Due to the misscheduling of summer holidays amongst the Stunt Watch team, you’ve got me again.

So I am writing this, White Negroni in hand, from a Spanish Island. 

What could possibly go wrong?

This week’s offering features two planes, a couple of billboards having a flirt, some rather dramatic storage and a million dollars’ worth of encouragement to take an interest in soap. Oh. And an Eiffel Tower.

Airlink makes an entrance

In one of the most spectacular stunts of the year – for its audacity as well as the degree of controversy it has caused – Airlink flew two jets over Cape Town’s DHL Stadium ahead of the Springboks vs All Blacks match.

The footage is somewhere between remarkable and uneasy viewing. I can’t decide which... maybe both.

Airlink said its flypast was approved, rehearsed and flown within its “authorised parameters” (I worry about its authorised parameters, can’t lie). A lot of people said that it was a brand endangering the lives of tens of thousands of people in the name of publicity.

All in all, it was a spectacular sponsorship execution—even if airlines would rather have people discussing how impressive its pilots are than speculating about whether they are to come nose-to-nose with the aircraft they are flying.

Interestingly, the brand has withdrawn its application for another flypast this weekend. Maybe they’ve got all the publicity they needed and are quitting while they’re ahead.

For those fond of stunt-based trivia, this was an “homage” to the famous South African Airways flypast before the 1995 Rugby World Cup final (also between South Africa and New Zealand). On that occasion, a Boeing 747 was flown over Ellis Park in Johannesburg with “Good luck Bokke” painted on its underside.

Stella Artois asks Häagen-Dazs out for a pint

To Toronto next, and some crafty out-of-home.

Häagen-Dazs put up a billboard with the line “Let’s grab a pint”. I thought it was a rather clever relocation of ice cream to a social occasion normally occupied by beer brands.

Stella Artois saw the opportunity to capitalise, and bought the spot alongside the response: “Are you asking us out?”. Apparently there was no coordination between the brands; it was simply an opportunity spotted and acted on.

Five words, a well-chosen media site, and a joke that didn’t require explanation. Lovely.

IKEA says there’s “nothing to see here”

At the risk of making Stunt Watch into Out-of-Home Watch, another billboard campaign caught my eye.

IKEA’s Swedish billboards look perfectly tidy from the front. However, tucked away behind them, the retailer piled up a perfectly formed stack of SAMLA storage boxes, holding the household clutter absent from the room set depicted.

It was a pleasingly honest product demonstration, showing that tidying up for guests often means moving the mess somewhere visitors won’t see it.

Dr. Squatch shows money talks

Natural soap brand Dr Squatch, perhaps most famous for its association with Sydney Sweeney, this time turned to IShowSpeed as its celebrity face.

They’ve launched a million-dollar competition with hidden briefcases, golden soap bars and social challenges across four countries. One challenge involves barking at a retail display.

Look, it will probably attract plenty of participation: a famous streamer and a million dollars are useful in stirring such things amongst the general public. But, it all feels a bit one-oh-one to me. But maybe that’s my curmudgeonly side coming out... or the Negroni.

And, finally… Paris has fallen

I’m not really sure this is a stunt per se. But it’s worthy of mention.

French artist Philippe Maindron took a broken, one-tenth-scale Eiffel Tower to Burning Man – its two sections connected by a cable for any tightrope walkers who might pass by (c’mon, it’s Burning Man, of course there were some passing tightrope walkers).

It's an art installation rather than a conventional brand stunt, but worth including for the image alone.

It’s a brilliant piece of discombobulation: take something everyone recognises, and put it somewhere it shouldn’t be in a form that feels creatively different. It’s the sort of creative brief most of us would cheerfully kill for.

Written by James Gordon-MacIntosh, co-founder at Hope & Glory, and first published on PRmoment.com.