If you grew up in the 80’s, the “Ghostbusters” movie was most likely on your Top Ten favorite movie list…and now that the movie is back with a female cast, Sony Pictures wanted to make a big impact with its advertising.  When the movie launched in London last month, a busy rail station was made over to bring the movie to life.  The centerpiece of the stunt was a Stay Puft marshmallow man busting up through the floor, while 26 foot slime poles “dripped” down from the ceiling at Waterloo Station.  At the base of the slime poles, vinyl “drops” were placed, alerting interested passersby of a great spot  to get the perfect angle for a memorable selfie.  Some of the walls were also wrapped to look like a station in New York, where the movie is set.  Eerie music was piped through the station to round out the atmosphere.

The brains behind the stunt were folks that grew up fans of the original “Ghostbusters” movie, now working for the ad agencies JCDecaux and Feref, which partnered with Sony Pictures for the campaign.  Stacey Knight, Director at JCDecaux Blue, says the team’s light bulb moment came at the beginning of the talks with Sony. “This is where we can actually make mine, and I’m sure so many other people’s, childhood dream of being an actual Ghostbuster come true,” Knight said.  “Thus, we landed at the core idea of creating an environment where the movie was a reality,” Knight concluded.

The decor at the Waterloo Station was just one part of the campaign that ran throughout the UK for the launch of the movie.  Digital screens in malls and other rail stations ran ads promoting the movie. On the JCDecaux digital out of home network, fake news stories of ghostly sightings were aired.

Although it probably goes without saying, people loved the campaign…hundreds of photos were posted on Twitter and videos on YouTube garnered over 130,000 views.