No pants, frozen strangers and improvised musicals

Imagine riding the train to work one morning. Nothing really out of the ordinary. The train pulls up to a station and a bunch of hip youngsters walk in. The funny (and bizarre) thing is that…none of them are wearing pants!

Imagine walking through a busy thoroughfare, people heading in all directions onto whatever destination they are destined for. Suddenly, every single person in sight stops dead in their tracks – apparently frozen.

‘Flash mob stunts’ – the term given for groups of people who orchestrate bizarre and often hilarious stunts in public places – have actually been around for a while.

It all started with Improv Everywhere, a collective of New York citizens who join up to achieve ‘missions’. Created in 2001, Improv Everywhere has executed over 80 missions involving thousands of undercover agents.

Some of the most incredible stunts include the annual No Pants! Subway Ride (now in its 8th year of operation), Frozen Grand Central, and the very witty Food Court Musical.

But pants or no pants, what do flash mob stunts have in common?

They’re high impact, they’re extremely memorable and people often talk about them (sometimes for days and days) with colleagues, friends and family (“Hey guess what happened on the way to work on Monday morning?”). As such, the clever marketers out there have started jumping onto the flash mob phenomenon, utilising the power of word-of-mouth to spread their brand message.

Click here to see a telco company that has cleverly used the power of flash mob stunts to bring joy and laughter to many commuters at Liverpool station in the UK and turned the footage into a short viral that really hit the spot. The commuters certainly loved it!