What happens when you give a monkey a machete and post it on YouTube? Twentieth Century Fox is hoping the answer is box office success.
On August 5, Rise of the Planet of the Apes will make its theatrical debut. The sci-fi film is a reboot of the famous Planet of the Apes franchise and the likely start of a new series. The film focuses on a scientist who tests his cure for Alzheimer’s disease on an ape but instead gives it human-level intelligence, sparking the beginning of the war between man and ape.
As part of its promotional campaign for the movie, Fox has been ramping up the movie’s social media presence. The movie has had an active presence on Facebook and Twitter, but it’s really found its stride on YouTube.
For the past few weeks, Fox has been releasing a series of short videos on its YouTube channel. They show monkeys and apes performing tasks normally associated with humans. One video shows a gorilla walking upright while another depicts a chimp beating humans in a photographic memory test. The most popular one thus far, though, is “Ape With AK-47“, a 43-second clip that has amassed 6.8 million video views as of June 13.
None of these videos mention Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The only giveaway that the videos are meant to promote a movie is the “20th Century Fox Research Library” branding on the bottom corner of the video.
This week, Fox is following up on the success of “Ape With AK-47″ with a new video that depicts chimpanzees being taught how to use machetes by African military forces. The video, provided exclusively to Mashable, claims that these chimps have taught their offspring how to wield these dangerous weapons.
The campaign is clever, and so far it has gained a decent amount of traction. Do you think the viral video campaign will translate into box office dollars?
Check out Fox’s newest viral video, as well as the other videos in the series, in the gallery below:
Chimp With Machete
Ape With AK-47
Chimp Beats Human: Intelligence Test
Gorilla Walks Upright
Chimp Plays First Person Shooter
More About: 20th century fox, Film, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, video, viral video, youtube
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