by Last night’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon kicked off an ambitious, weird experiment in advertising that’s both old-school #tbt-worthy, whilst also modern enough to throw in all of the social media that goes with using a hashtag and an acronym like #tbt.
For four consecutive Thursday nights, Lexus is assembling NYC improv groups together near the Brooklyn Bridge to perform live commercial spots for the carmaker during the broadcast of taped Late Night with Jimmy Fallon shows.
Here’s how it’s working:
During an early commercial block, the improv group appears, announces its intentions and asks viewers to submit suggested premises. About a half-hour later, during the final commercial block, the group improvises a minute-long scene based on one of those suggestions, with a shout-out to the audience member and his/her social media account on Twitter/Facebook/elsewhere.
The Magnet Theater’s Touring Company drew the first straw and performed last night. Future Thursdays will include Fun Young Guys from The PIT, Stone Cold Fox from the UCB, and MB’s Dream (which presumably means Mike Birbiglia’s Dream lineup of improvisers, just without Birbiglia himself? yes, that’s the ticket).
Last night’s ad is, well, what were you expecting? What are you expecting? Roll the clip and find out if it meets your expectations!
