The text notes that marketers continue to push the envelope to create spectacles that will increase consumer involvement with their messages:

• A British show broadcast a group of skydivers who performed a dangerous jump to create a human formation in the air that spelled out the letters H, O, N, D, and A.

• Honda built a musical road in Lancaster, PA; grooves in the cement create a series of pitches that play the William Tell Overture when a car drives over them.

• A New York campaign for Jameson Irish Whiskey projects an ad onto a wall—an operator scans the street for pedestrians who fit the brand’s profile and inserts live text messages directed at them into the display.

• To promote the 25th anniversary of the Michael Jackson album Thriller, which featured zombies dancing in a music video of the title song, Sony BMG staged a performance in the London Underground. A group of “passengers” suddenly burst into a zombie-like dance before they disappeared into the crowd, and this videotaped scene was posted online. The video inspired similar performances in other countries, and within a week more than a million people had downloaded these films. In a similar stunt for T-Mobile, several hundred commuters at the Liverpool rail station broke into a dance; more than 15 million people watched the performance on YouTube in the following weeks. These (not so) spontaneous flashmobs have become increasingly common. Can you top these? Imagine that a client hires you to launch a new energy drink. Propose a spectacle you could engineer that would attract potential customers to learn more about your product.