Netflix traps a man in a billboard above Sunset Boulevard

Netflix has installed a live performer inside a fully furnished billboard above the intersection of Sunset Boulevard in LA, an experiential marketing stunt promoting new sci-fi thriller The Last House.

For three days, the man has eaten cereal, waved to commuters through a bay window and scanned the traffic with binoculars, replying to bewildered passers-by via a dry-erase whiteboard.

The air-conditioned living room sits roughly 30 feet above the road, complete with a sofa and full furnishings, a stark contrast to the heatwave currently gripping Southern California.

Photographs: Joel Barhamand / Netflix

The stunt plays directly on the premise of The Last House, starring Greta Lee and Wagner Moura, in which a family fights to survive after becoming trapped inside their home with dwindling resources.

Netflix’s billboard performer, by contrast, is living rent free above one of LA’s most congested junctions: a joke not lost on drivers stuck watching him from their cars.

It is the latest OOH stunt on Netflix’s permanent Sunset Boulevard site, which has previously hosted a Valentine’s Day billboard gag, and follows recent experiential pushes including the Stranger Things Recap Cassette, part of a wider pattern of extending titles beyond the screen.

The performer is due to vacate the billboard on Saturday.