To celebrate the Mill Valley Film Festival’s 41st year of showcasing the best in independent and world cinema, the team at Sausalito, Calif.-based ad agency BSSP created a campaign that not only highlights its rich history, but also promotes the importance of preserving the element of surprise in great film with a faux product designed to detect film spoilers.
Universally, movie goers hate when someone spoils the film they’re watching. In this campaign, fictitious spokesperson Bill O’Brian, chief visionary at Ecosystem Industries, takes the stage at a tech conference to unveil his company’s latest creation – The Spoiler Alert. An image of the physical device appears onscreen behind him as he addresses an expectant crowd, claiming: “The Spoiler Alert is a revolutionary voice recognition smart device that alerts you when someone around you is about to spoil a film. It’s got voice recognition technology, a built-in movie database, cinephile presence sensor, and an optional high pitched sound frequency cannon. Is this device eavesdropping all the time? You bet it is.”
We then see a slice of life in which the technology is deployed.
John Butler, co-chairman of BSSP, directed the spots, including this main “Spoiler Alert” trailer via Cleaver Content, BSSP’s in-house production/post arm.
The Mill Valley Film Festival runs from Oct 4-14. BSSP has been working to promote the Festival for the past five years.