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Smile! Paramount Pictures’ Viral Marketing Strategy is Spooking MLB Viewers

The end of the baseball season is always an exciting time. Whether you’re watching to see who will win the NL East or following Aaron Judge’s quest to break the single season home run record, there is reason to tune in to almost every game.

Usually, the scariest thing in baseball is the Braves not winning the pennant, but haunting fans is exactly the tact that Paramount Pictures is taking to promote their latest horror film ‘Smile’. Over the past week, the studio has been deploying actors to the primo seats directly behind home plate to sit creepily still, look directly into the cameras, and you guessed it, smile.

These smiling actors have created huge social media buzz, with everyone in baseball from Jomboy Media to SportsCenter talking about the strange phenomena on social media.

The film had a troubled production during the pandemic and was initially slated to unceremoniously hit Paramount’s streaming service, Paramount+. However, extremely positive test screening reactions and early raves from horror critics has earned the movie a theatrical release this coming weekend. You can watch the trailer for the film here.

Keep an eye out as you watch baseball this week. More smilers may appear at games in anticipation of the film’s Friday release. It is still unclear if this viral marketing stroke of genius will help the flick up its theatrical box office return, but this buzzworthy campaign has brought smiles to lots of folks, including us at MMC.

This post is courtesy of MMC Digital Media Coordinator Avery Lane

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