Australia’s Magnum PR use Sacha Baren Cohen’s ‘Dictator’ to try and attract media buzz….
By Sorrel Holliday on Thursday, May 3, 2012
Mexican Food chain Mad Mex recently hauled in new PR company Magnum PR to help create a buzz around the same time as their ‘Big Burrito’ campaign which encourages customers to try and eat a 1kg burrito, a campaign that they had also run the year before.
Magnum PR replaced their previous agency Six Degree’s Collective, but whether their stunt was a success is questionable.
Publicists for the mexican food chain sent out ‘tip-off’s’ to the media that Sacha Baren Cohen’s latest comedic character would be present at the food store. ‘Admiral General Aladeen’ is the character who stars in Cohen’s film ‘The Dictator’ and was the cause of so much media hype in the U.K earlier this year. Of course Sacha Baren Cohen knows how to pull of a good stunt (see here), but Magnum PR presented frenzied fans and media in Sydney yesterday afternoon with a what can only be described as a disappointing ‘fake’ .
The ‘Dictator’
Mad Mex posted: Word on the street is we’ve got a special visitor coming to our Crown St store! Come down at 12:00 to meet him! #bigburrito , as well as posting pictures on their twitter feed of the real Sacha Baren Cohen:
[Head to Crown St right now to witness the ultimate def”eat” and conquer!#TheDictator #bigburrito http://pic.twitter.com/0v32ljRf ]
Sacha Baren Cohen himself is currently in Sydney promoting ‘The Dictator’, but has no links with Mad Mex. Do you think Magnum PR should have got Paramount’s permission? Magnum PR said:
“It was just a stunt to coincide with Sacha Baron Cohen’s visit to Sydney and to highlight our new burritos. It wasn’t our intention to disappoint anyone.”
Whilst I can see where Magnum PR were coming from, creating a disappointment in the form of this poor resemblance is not my idea of a PR success and is just slightly embarrassing. Had they got the real deal on the other hand….!
