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Flash mob in red wax lips They emerge from the crowd, dancing to the beat Nov 12, 2009
Out they come. The scene is Grauman Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, and from the crowd of tourists 30 people step forward and pop the wax lips in their mouths. Now they begin to dance. They're bopping to a song called "Kiss Your Assets Goodbye," which is pumping out from unseen speakers. Each time the singer says the word "kiss," the dancers tap their lips with their fingers, then smack their hands on their butts. The dancers interact with the crowd, which as one might imagine is totally surprised, pointing at them, posing for their cameras, and even pulling confused tourists onto the makeshift dance floor. Then it's over. The music stops, the dancers remove their red wax lips and slip back into the crowd. Fewer than three minutes have passed. It's a flash mob, of course, an alternative media device that's becoming more and more popular these days. The stunt was sponsored by the Nevada Development Authority as part of a campaign to persuade businesses to move Nevada, where there is no corporate or personal income tax. The NDA, which has targeted Southern California for several years, orchestrated the stunt to increase its media exposure as California struggles through its massive budget crisis. Why the Grauman Chinese Theatre? "Our strategy was to identify a location that was iconic, high-traffic and viral friendly, thus a place where tourists scour with cameras, cell phones and camcorders where the flash mobs would be an attraction that they would capture and share across the internet," says Arlene Tan-Bordinhão of Q ad | pr, the NDA's Las Vegas-based agency. Why the wax lips? For kissing one's assets, of course, but also to set the dancers apart from the crowd as they performed. It took about two months to plan the event. First the agency hired choreographers to plan the dance and song writers to compose "Assets." Then it auditioned dancers found via the internet and in the Los Angeles area. Several rehearsals were held, including one on the morning of the event, which took place at 11 a.m. on Aug. 11. The stunt clearly succeeded in drawing in the crowd. "The tourists in the area started taking photos and video of the dance, and the characters that normally walk Hollywood Boulevard, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, even got into the action," Tan-Bordinhão says. The stunt worked on two levels. It drew tons of attention at the Theatre, obviously, because it was so unexpected. But it also succeeded in making a direct connection between the song, the dance and the NDA's message: If you move to Nevada, you'll no longer be kissing your assets goodbye. A video posted on YouTube of the flash mob has drawn more than 11,000 hits. The stunt was featured on CNN’s "Lou Dobbs Tonight," ABC "World News" web site, PR Week and the Financial Times. Most importantly, it has generated a lot of queries for the NDA. "The NDA has received over 150 calls from California companies to date," Tan-Bordinhão says.
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