AMC/Zombie Experiment NYC – Could Zombies Live Among Us?

Zombie postmen. Zombie hot dog vendors. Zombie construction workers. It’s no wonder even the dogs of New York are completely freaked out.

AMC Networks Inc. doesn’t want fans to forget that its flagship channel AMC, home of “Mad Men” and “The Walking Dead,” has been off Dish Network Corp.’s satellite TV systems for a month. So it’s resorting to some zombie-tastic marketing.

AMC put up a YouTube video entitled “Zombie Experiment NYC” with the caption “Could zombies live among us?” The video, created by Thinkmodo, a New York-based viral marketing firm hired by AMC for this project, shows the process of painstakingly outfitting about 13 actors in gory, gut-twisting zombie makeup and letting them loose throughout New York City–much to the horror of innocent bystanders.

“The makeup took forever to apply,” said Michael Krivicka, co-founder of Thinkmodo, who said the shoot spanned the course of eight days. “One person was eating a sandwich and dropped the sandwich to the ground once she realized the hotdog vendor was a zombie.”

At the end of the video, one zombie creepily drags a Dish satellite dish behind it, and bright block words appear on the screen: “Zombies don’t belong here. Put them back on TV.” The video then directs viewers to putzombiesback.com, AMC’s website advertising that Dish has dropped AMC and the popular zombie drama “The Walking Dead,” which starts its new season on October 14. The video comes about a month after Dish dropped AMC’s channels, which include AMC, We TV, IFC and Sundance Channel. At the time, Dish cited the channels’ high cost compared to their relatively low viewership among Dish subscribers, though AMC said Dish was attempting to gain leverage in an unrelated lawsuit between the two companies. The dispute has kept AMC and its sibling channels off the TV lineup for Dish’s 14 million satellite subscribers, cutting into the ratings for the channels.

AMC says more marketing like this is on the way to raise awareness of the situation among current and potential Dish customers.

Only two days after its posting, the “Zombie Experiment” video already has more than 650,000 views on YouTube, fulfilling the viral message AMC was going for. Have a look at the reactions of New Yorkers confronted with realistic zombies below.

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