Just got off a long flight at Heathrow? All you need is to get through T5 and you’re home and dry, right? Not today.
Today weary passengers dragging their luggage into T5’s arrivals area will have to contend with the unnerving sight of 500 or so apparently unconnected people, from cabin crew to taxis drivers, spontaneously bursting into song as part of a “flash mob” event organised by T-Mobile for its latest ad campaign.
As arriving travellers seek out their lifts home or head for the station, they will be individually serenaded by the flash mob who will sing from a tracklist of songs themed around welcoming people home including Mark Morrison’s Return Of The Mack and Iggy Pop’s I Am A Passenger.
A human orchestra of 30 singers whose particular gift it is to be able to emulate instruments (think cello, drums and violins) will accompany the flash mob – with all of this, of course, being filmed by hidden cameras.
The advert will be shown this Friday night at 10.10pm and will premiere the full three-minute version. It will be run at the same time across 86 digital and terrestrial channels along with all the major social networks. T-mobile anticipates around 10 million people across the UK will see it.
This is the third time T-Mobile has employed this tactic for its ads. In January last year 400 plain clothes dancers suddenly started performing in the middle of Liverpool Street Station and in May 2009 popstar Pink led a sing off in Trafalgar Square along with 13,000 people.
The two events combined attracted 28m YouTube hits.
Director of Brand at T-Mobile Spencer McHugh said: “We all know what it can be like arriving at an airport after a flight, walking past the drivers with the names on the cards and we thought that, just for one day, we should give travellers a welcome they would never forget.
“With our hidden cameras we were able to record the reaction of the returning travellers and the spectacle of more than 500 people singing and dancing in airport arrivals, all of which will be shared when the advert premieres on Friday night.”
by Dinah Hatch
