Night of the Living Dead

“They’re coming to get you, Barbara.” After conquering the world, the ghouls (you may call them zombies) were coming back home to Pittsburgh. Though it started as a low-budget horror flick, made far outside the Hollywood system, “Night of the Living Dead” is now considered one of the greatest horror movies ever made and is credited as the beginning of the modern horror movie genre.

The George A. Romero Foundation–named for the late director–came to us for help promoting its kickoff event, a screening in Pittsburgh to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of “Night of the Living Dead.”

Insights
The event was to be held in the exact theater where the movie first screened 50 years prior. The film had recently received a new 4K state-of-the-art restoration, created by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) from the original camera negative. All the living (and otherwise undead) cast members were to arrive for a special pre-show program commemorating the 50th anniversary of “Night of the Living Dead.”
The film was a first in so many ways:

• It’s often given credit as the first “modern” horror movie, shaking off the relics of Saturday-matinee monster movie kiddie fare to deliver something truly chilling
• It’s a landmark of American independent cinema, a do-it-yourself masterpiece with no big-name actors or Hollywood budgets.
• It’s a film laden with social commentary, as the apocalyptic horror of the Vietnam War raged on, and leading roles for African American actors—like Duane Jones in “Night”—were almost nonexistent.
• It gave birth to the modern zombie movie, including everything from Romero’s later landmark “Dawn of the Dead” to the hit TV series “The Walking Dead.”

Groundwork
“Night of the Living Dead” is a movie that everybody knows something about, but few know the full story.

It’s both a local story and a national story about something born here in Pittsburgh that went on to take over the world. We knew that horror movie fans are extremely loyal, vocal, and pack conventions every year.

The key was to determine the right spokespeople for the project, which included producer Gary Streiner and Suzanne Romero, George’s widow.

Strategy
Want to make a press conference memorable? Just add zombies.

Ghouls roamed Downtown Pittsburgh as we kicked off a press conference in the shadow of the theater where “Night of the Living Dead” first screened in 1968 and would screen again. There was just the right amount of mayhem as the cast, the mayor of Pittsburgh, and lots of zombies in full makeup by ScareHouse, a nationally renowned local haunted house, vied for attention. (We tried to get the mayor into zombie makeup, but he declined.)

The images were as irresistible as only an onslaught of hungry zombies can be, and the Pittsburgh media ate it up. Get it?

Zombies also stormed the newsrooms. While doing an interview with the cast on the morning show “Pittsburgh Today Live,” a gaggle of ghouls roamed and groaned in the background. It was a change in tone for the normally tightly choreographed show. But they went with it because, well, zombies. They’re kind of hard to resist, and they do what they want.

Of course, it helped that the groundwork was laid beforehand, as we dug up all the zombie movie fans in the local media (there were many), and approached each outlet individually, helping them each find an angle to stick out from the pack. For national media like Newsweek, Entertainment Weekly, and Comicbook.com, we tapped into the intense connection that so many people have with the film, and we got some bites.

Actually, there were 300 plus stories across the country, with more than 200 million total impressions. So, quite a few bites.