29 most expensive and crazy PR moves in history

Advertising surrounds us from all sides. And if anyone can put up ads on the entrances or order a video on television, then only real marketing gurus work on serious projects, who are ready to do anything to be remembered by the consumer. From launching cars into space to KFC chicken-flavored logs, all these PR campaigns have left their mark on history. But you have to pay for everything, and that's how much they cost the companies…

In 2006, KFC decided to invite the inhabitants of neighboring galaxies to its restaurants and placed its logo on a plot of land in the Nevada desert with an area of 168,350 square kilometers.

But what is really impressive is the cost of the project – $ 30,000!

In 2018, the popular fast food restaurant chain celebrated International Women's Day by turning its logo upside down – so the famous " M "turned into" W","women".

Although it was a temporary measure, the company spent $ 75,000 to replicate the trick in more than 100 U.S. restaurants. In addition to this, the company also provided employees with a temporary uniform with a new logo.

In 2017, these billboards appeared in Los Angeles literally overnight, and no one ever admitted to authorship.

It is still unclear whether this was a PR campaign of Netflix itself, or whether a competitor of the company decided to spend $ 100,000 out of boredom and was ashamed to admit it.

To draw public attention to the declining population of large pandas, in 2008, the World Wildlife Fund spent $ 50,000 to create 1,600 papier-mache pandas – one for every panda left in the world.

The paper animals were then placed in front of the Eiffel Tower so that they could not be overlooked. And it seems that the action worked, as the panda population has since increased!

Most of the Lego sets are designed for children and their parents, but Lego Technic sets are more for novice engineers.

In 2018, the brand decided to team up with Bugatti to pull off the PR campaign of the century. Yes, in the photo, a fully working life-size Bugatti Chiron made from Lego parts… To be more precise, the sports car is assembled from parts worth $ 3 million, and it took 13,400 hours to create it!

In 2018, Sony was preparing for the release of a new game about Spider-Man on PS4 and organized such a spectacular advertisement for some pitiful $ 200,000.

The bus was partially submerged in Lake Darcena in Milan and covered with cobwebs, as if Spider-Man himself had prevented it from sinking.

Do you like wine? Would you like to swim in it? Especially for such extreme athletes, in 2018, the Hakone Kowakien Yunessun wine spa resort was opened in Tokyo.

Yunessen Wine has spent $ 20 million to create its own spa complex with hot springs and a wine pool.

To whet viewers ' interest in the 2016 remake of Ghostbusters, Columbia Pictures installed a giant Marshmallow Man at London Waterloo Station and spent $ 200,000 on it.

The film still failed at the box office, but this PR move was on everyone's lips – who knows how much money the film would have raised without it.

In 2012, Red Bull launched the Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner 39 kilometers into the stratosphere – this action cost the company as much as $ 30 million.

He was put in a capsule, which was then lifted into the sky on a giant helium balloon. Felix jumped out of the capsule and was in free fall for a full ten minutes! This extreme venture allegedly brought Red Bull an additional $ 500 million in sales.

In 2018, Corona decided to team up with Parley and actor Chris Hemsworth to celebrate World Ocean Day.

The company wanted to draw attention to the huge amount of plastic in the oceans, and their billboards, which cost $ 100,000, certainly succeeded.

In 2014, Blizzard Entertainment decided to celebrate the release of a new World of Warcraft expansion, Warlords of Draenor, with an unusual $ 300,000 installation.

Although New Yorkers have long been accustomed to yellow taxis in Times Square, the giant axe slicing through the roof of the car surprised everyone.

To celebrate the start of the horse racing competition in Cheltenham, in 2013, the bookmaker Paddy Power launched an unusual balloon into the sky, which immediately attracted the attention of the British.

"Lucky cowards" in the sky cost the company $ 75,000, but it was worth it – British sports fans began to bet much more often through Paddy Power.

In 2018, Time magazine, which is famous for its unusual covers, decided to try something new and make an issue that would appeal even to those who did not buy the magazine.

With the help of 958 drones, the magazine managed to place the cover of the latest issue right in the night sky in Folsom, California.. This PR move was organized as part of the release of the "Age of Drones", its implementation was carried out by Intel Light and its Drone Light Show Team. The promotion cost Time $ 18,000.

In 2018, the auction house Sotheby's sold Banksy's painting "Girl with a Balloon" for $ 1.4 million.

Her buyer was overjoyed, but the happiness was fleeting – just a couple of seconds later, the picture passed through the shredder hidden in the frame. Although the buyer was left without a masterpiece, this action was talked about for a long time.

In 2018, the Domino's pizza chain held a campaign in Texas that was talked about all over the world, and spent only $ 5,000 on it.

The company noticed that its drivers in the Texas city of Bartonville were severely delayed along the way by potholes on the roads, and decided to deal with it. Domino's ordered 75 tons of asphalt to fill up the numerous potholes on the city's roads, and, of course, did not forget to decorate the patches with its logo.

In 2018, Elon Musk combined the development of his companies Tesla and SpaceX for an epic PR campaign: he sent his car, the Tesla Roadster, into space.

Elon even put a "driver" in it, and now this dummy will circle in orbit until it burns up. Although this event drew public attention to the two companies, many were skeptical about the idea of spending $ 90-150 million on such an extravagant trick.

Shia Labeouf is famous for extravagant antics, and one of the most memorable is his outfit at the premiere of the film "Nymphomaniac" at the Berlin Film Festival.

The actor appeared on the red carpet with a paper bag on his head with the inscription "I'm not famous anymore". Many thought that the actor expressed his attitude to his life and career in such an unusual way, while others suggested that it was an advertisement for a new art project that the actor was working on at the time.

Everything you need to know about the relationship between British airlines-British Airways and Virgin Airways have been competing for decades.

In 1999, the owner of Virgin Airways, Richard Branson, decided to show off his sparkling sense of humor, and it cost him $ 2 million. The fact is that at that time BA sponsored the construction of the London Eye Ferris Wheel in London, and the whole world was waiting for its completion. But the task was not easy, and the company had difficulties in raising the wheel to an upright position. Then Branson launched a blimp over the construction site with the inscription "British Airways does not get up". Brilliant.

Amazon Prime was preparing to release a sequel to the film "Borat" in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, so the PR campaign was appropriate.

An inflatable doll in the form of the protagonist of the film socially distanced itself in the middle of the London Thames – and even covered the most intimate with a medical mask!

The Dubai Desert Classic is an extremely popular golf tournament that takes place in Dubai every year, and although golf fans are already lining up for tickets, tournament organizers often spend a lot of money to attract even more attention to it.

And in 2004, they decided to spend $ 1 million to open the tournament by Tiger Woods, a golf legend. He had flown in from the US only to make his first shot at the ball on the helipad of the world's tallest hotel at the time – the Burj al Arab.

To celebrate its appearance on Facebook, in 2012, the betting company Jackpotjoy.com sent a giant inflatable duckling swimming down the Thames.

The duckling weighed half a ton, reached 15 meters in height and 18 in width, its creation was carried out by eight people for 800 hours. The PR campaign cost the company $ 270,000, but it seems that it was worth it – the duckling attracted the attention of many people, who then subscribed to the new bookmaker's page.

By the seventh season, "Game of Thrones" was already so popular that it hardly needed marketing.

However, HBO did not miss the opportunity to once again draw attention to the project, and in 2017 sent the King of the Night and his gang for a walk around London. The appearance of walkers in the British capital was discussed all over the news and social networks, but was it worth $ 10,000?

In 2008, the fast food chain Burger King announced the launch of its perfume line and introduced the first fragrance, "Flame-Grilled", which it described as "a seduction fragrance with a hint of grilled meat".

It turned out to be a joke by the First of April, but the company did sell vials for $ 3.99 apiece. How much it cost her is a mystery, but certainly a lot!

Everyone loves the smell of a campfire, and what if you add to this the aroma of fried chicken? Especially for fans, KFC has released such logs with spices.

And although the company was only trying to attract attention to the brand and lure people to restaurants, this action made a real revolution among fans of lighting a fireplace at home. The logs were so popular that when the product ran out in restaurants, they began to resell it online for triple the price!

For a new promotion, the British insurance company Confused.com I found the street with the highest number of accidents in the country and wrapped it entirely in bubble wrap.

Seriously, everything: houses, cars, trash cans, and even trees. It is not clear how much all this cost, but it is hardly more expensive than the same inflatable Borat or a giant yellow duck.

In 2012, Chevrolet caught fire with the idea to remove such advertising, which other car manufacturers did not dream of.

As a result, they lifted the cars on a cargo plane and sent them flying by parachute-effectively, you can not say anything. The exact cost of the ad campaign is unknown, but it is estimated that it cost Chevrolet about $ 200,000.

Let's be honest, few people like to share – especially sweets, which they themselves have long dreamed of.

The company Ben&Jerry's took advantage of this and released a combination lock for its ice cream, so that no one at home could secretly shomyachit a spoonful or two. The invention was actively discussed in social networks, however, for $ 14, few people wanted to buy it.

Although at first glance this billboard does not stand out, the Danish brewing company Carlsberg really created "perhaps the best poster in the world": after all, any passerby could come up and pour himself a real beer from the tap!

There were queues at the billboard, and it wasn't long before all of London knew of its existence.

Designer clothing is not cheap, and not everyone can afford it. So there was a market for fakes, and while most brands are struggling with it, Diesel went a completely different way.

In 2018, the fashion brand opened its own fake shop in New York's Chinatown and named it Deisel. However, they sold real, branded items in it for $ 100-200 apiece. The move attracted huge public attention, with Vogue calling it " brand strengthening."