Flash-mob-tastic

Becca Downer — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 11:13:19 +0000

Anyone who has ever worked in London will know that commuting is a very dull business. However, commuters in London Liverpool street station were treated to something out of the ordinary on the 15th of January.

Network operator T-mobile staged it’s very own Flashmob where 400 commuters, tourists and underground staff leaped into action to bust out a co-ordinated mix of dance moves right in the middle of the station.

For those of you not up on the lingo, a flash mob is when a mass of regular people assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual action for a brief time and then quickly disperse. Famous examples include the time a huge crowd of people stood frozen for several long minutes in Trafalgar Square and a previous, pre-arranged silent dance party at the same Liverpool station.

(In fact flash mobs are a particular form of smart mob, which is a term coined by author Howard Rheingold in his 2002 book Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in the subject- I read for my dissertation)

Anyway..

Hidden cameras recorded the performance and the full clip was aired in the first break during Big Brother on C4.

Since it was aired, T-mobile have been called the “latest fool to jump on the Flash-Mob-as-viral-marketing bandwagon”.

They’ve also been criticised for using a flash mob to sell their products: Flash mobbing is typically seen as an anarchic, freedom-of-expression act, although this one was organised by T-Mobile for an advert.

However, I think we have to take our hats off to T-mobile because the idea and execution was excellent. It certainly got the attention of commuters at Liverpool Street Station. But don’t take my word for it…watch it here:

SceneStealer » T-mobile

Flash-mob-tastic