'Scary Movie' Gets a Hotbox in Times Square

Paramount wanted an ‘unapologetically inappropriate’ ad play

When Paramount Pictures sat down with Pubity Group asking for “unapologetically inappropriate” ideas to promote its latest Scary Movie, the social publisher believed that it had to push the limits of pop culture parody.

The result? Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Anna Faris and Ghostface hotboxing in an enclosed glass case in New York’s Times Square, of course. 

“We knew we wanted to parody not just movies, but movie marketing itself.” says Ollie Williams, creative director at Pubity.

The stunt is a direct nod to the Severance Grand Central cube, “a sleek, corporate glass box that felt very on-brand for that show. Once we had that as our reference, the Scary Movie version was obvious: if you’re making a glass box for the most irreverent franchise in movie history, it has to be a hotbox. If the Severance cube was cold and dystopian, ours was hot and smokey.”

The creative studio team at Pubity worked closely alongside the client and agency partners at Paramount Pictures and Spark Foundry on the campaign. Pubity Group also selected several specialist production partners including Pollution Studios, Reframe The World and READYSET, the designers behind the original Severance cube. 

Pubity and Paramount had crews on the ground to capture content. And invited content creators were on hand to broadcast the moment across social in real-time.

Additionally, Pubity ran a creator-led global Wazzup moment, extending the campaign’s reach internationally.

The goal was to generate massive earned media and organic reach leading up to the June 5 release. Pubity wanted to prove that a social-first experience can drive cultural conversation at scale. The ad play is also designed to reconnect the original fanbase with the franchise.

“The numbers, which continue to grow—900k+ likes, 300k+ shares, tens of millions of views within 24 hours on Pubity Group channels alone, as well as global press coverage—suggest it landed on all three,” says SVP Alex Giacon.

Giacon points to this type of campaign as being a marker of where experiential marketing is heading. “The stunt exists to generate content, not the other way around,” he says. “When those two things are properly aligned, the numbers take care of themselves.”

As for the hotboxing as the main centerpiece of the stunt?

“Simple: without stoners, there is no Scary Movie,” adds Williams.

(CLICK HERE to learn more about Scary Movie’s massive marketing push.)