LEDs Create Zombie-Filled School Bus For Netflix Series Promo

February 7, 2022 by Dave Haynes

I am not a big fan of digital out of home advertising and marketing campaigns that try to realize a desired effect by scaring the crap out of people, and this is a prime example of a digital display project that is very clever and eye-catching, but could cause some collateral damage.

It’s in Bangkok, and it’s Netflix marketing a new streaming series from Korea called All Of Us Are Dead. Based on my experience banging around Netflix, this is the latest of about 5 billion shows and movies involving zombies.

In this case, a cube truck has been modified to look somewhat like a schoolbus, with LED displays schemed in as the windows. To casual onlookers, it appears the students inside the bus are being shredded by the ravenous undead – complete with splatters of blood on the virtual windows.

There’s an “activation” element to it, as well, with actor-zombies spilling out into busy intersections.

So on one hand, it’s very clever and impressive on the creative side and technical execution. Screens on rolling stock is not easy.

But … just like the screens that do things like suddenly broken glass or have live actors behind them that jump out at people, somebody’s going to get hurt. As much as we want to assume that everyone would know this is just marketing, there will almost certainly be people who startle easily, or maybe weren’t really paying attention, who are going to trip on curbs or jump away and into the path of the many, many scooters in Thai city streets.

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