New York-based marketing firm, Thinkmodo, struck again, releasing an animatronic infant in a remote-controlled pram to terrorize the people of Manhattan on Tuesday, Jan. 14, as part of a low-budget marketing stunt to promote the movie “Devil’s Due,” released on Friday, Jan. 17.
This little red-eyed, vomit-spewing demon-child racked up over 9.4 millions views on YouTube by Tuesday afternoon, according to an article posted on latimes.com.
This abandoned stroller would either attract bystanders through the sound of a crying infant or would even be as bold to approach them, and then proceed to scare and confuse anybody nearby. As seen in the video, even a dog jumped back, its tail between its legs, after the infant sprang up growling.
According to an article published by the Huffington Post, Thinkmodo founder, Michael Krivicka, told Yahoo! News that the project “was an interesting social experiment to see how many people would bother to check on an abandoned stroller.”
This lifelike creature had the ability to blink, sit up, scream, growl, give the finger and even projectile vomit.
This was not the first time Thinkmodo shocked the people of New York. In October of 2013, to promote the movie “Carrie,” Thinkmodo ridged a coffee shop with remote controlled tables and flying books to make it appear as though a woman — who was an actress — had telekinetic abilities, according to an article by the Huffington Post.
While this type of marketing has drawn a lot of positive attention, it has also had people voicing a lot of concern of the the safety of the people.
If indeed all of the people in the “Devil Baby Attacks” video were not paid actors, then there is a very real chance that a person could have become violent, started panic or even suffered from a heart attack.
Though no one was hurt during the making of “Devil Baby Attacks,” it does make one wonder how far producers are willing to go to get a thrill from their audience. People who pay to go and see a horror movie are paying to be frightened. People who buy a coffee are not exactly paying to have a table fly across the room.
But is this “prank-style” type of advertising really successful?
According to IMDB.com, “Devil’s Due” rolled in at No. 7 for its opening weekend. The movie made $9.3 million, falling in between movies “American Hustle” (No. 6) with $11.5 million and “August: Osage County” (No. 8) with $8.9 million, two movies that have been out for a few weeks now.
