Ad agency stages fake murder on elevator, records alleged reactions, to promote film

Ad Agency Promotes Crime Film by Staging Fake Murder in Elevator and Then Recording People’s Reactions (Gawker)

As part of an ad campaign for Niels Arden Oplev's upcoming neo-noir thriller crime film Dead Man Down, NYC-based marketing firm Thinkmodo decided to see what New Yorkers would do if they happened to stumbled onto a crime in progress — namely, a murder.
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Not surprisingly, many passers-by chose to bolt rather than take any immediate action, though some tried to help, and at least one took the matter into his own hands.

But the last guy... well, not to spoil the ending, but let's just say, it's doubtful anything any of Dead Man Down's "dark secrets" could be as chilling as what he chose to do

Click to expand...

a bit more at the link
[video=youtube;qo6Jzh7SHRA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo6Jzh7SHRA[/video]

I'm not keen on these type of social (especially psychological) experiments conducted by people who are not trained and educated in how to conduct one properly.

Which I don't think this qualifies as a social or psychological experiment but it does qualify in outlandish selfish behavoir on the part of the ad agency and proves nothing other than the fact those two actors were lucky that none of the people that were selected as victims to view the two actors---didn't take matters into their own hands and they are especially lucky no one was carrying an object or even an concealed weapon and took immediate action in order to save a life of another human being.

If I had been one of those people that watched this scene and then was told afterwards? I would be capital P capital O'ed.

What about the negative impact on those unsuspecting people? Were they screened? Did this ad agency know if any of them had medical conditions that a shock like that could endanger their health? Or psychological conditions such as PTSD, GAD...etc...etc? They could have really negatively impacted those people they played this "prank" on. IMHO

But that's just my opinion I don't like that one show on TV I think it's called what would you do. I've seen it once or twice and when I did I know that I would have probably been arrested for intervening. lol.

Ever the skeptic, I'm of the opinion that this is staged, and everyone we see in it is an actor with a role to play.

I hope so godot! If not, they really overstepped in their attempt to create viral ads.

I suspect wfgodot may be right. Nothing is said about 911 calls. Many of the "bystanders" do try to stop the "murder", so I think it's safe to assume many more would have called 911. The police would have arrived and stopped the experiment in short order, if it were real.

But I agree with Kat: that's a line that shouldn't be crossed in the name of "entertainment".

Purely speculation but if there were unsuspecting people there seeing this couldn't they suffer later mental distress over this? And could they sue the ad agency for it?

And isn't it a crime to "stage" a crime in public without warning?

All actors.

Tacky. Incredibly tacky. The company's web site is tacky, their ads are tacky. I would never buy any product or service this company advertises. ever.

They are no one among the advertising world.

Yuck!