The “Jurassic Park” reboot franchise that started with 2015’s “Jurassic World” has become a behemoth (a T. Rex, one might say) of a blockbuster. So, it’s really fitting that the franchise goes larger than life with its promotional campaign, isn’t it?
Deadline Hollywood reported that “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” which hits theaters in June, has a promotional budget of $185 million, more than double its spending for the first installment three years ago. It’s even bigger than Disney’s “Avengers: Infinity Wars,” which hit $150 million.
The obvious choice for promotional products is the Jeep. It was a prop in the original franchise as it outran a T. Rex with greatest-actor-of-our-time Jeff Goldblum’s character lying injured in the back. Jeep released commercials with Goldblum in a new Jeep Wrangler, once again with a T. Rex in the mix.
Speaking of vehicles, Adweek reported that Amazon is driving around a giant box with some airholes in it that look suspiciously like a cardboard (read: unsafe) version of the vehicles used to transport dinos in the first “Jurassic Park.” What’s even better about this promotion is that you could ask Alexa what was inside.
An Amazon delivery 65 million years in the making. @JurassicWorld #FallenKingdom #AmazonFindsAWay pic.twitter.com/fI9NTQgKdm
— Jurassic World (@JurassicWorld) May 30, 2018
In the U.K., “Fallen Kingdom” built on its own success from the first movie by creating a massive T-Rex and velociraptor display at King’s Cross station in London. Fans could also see it in shopping malls in France and Germany. Also, the movie set up more than 100 velociraptors in different restaurants across South Korea, China and other South Asian countries.
Food is another solid choice for the franchise, since it plays nicely with the overarching theme of the movies: Don’t get eaten.
“Jurassic World” partnered with Doritos to put the movie’s logo on bags of its Nacho Cheese and Cool Ranch (i.e. the only flavors that matter) chips. Countries outside the U.S. will get the added bonus of getting Velociraptor-inspired “Blue” chips (after one of the movie’s named dinos). We’re not sure if that means the chips themselves will be blue (maybe those flavor crystals?) or they’ll be velociraptor-shaped. Either way, we’re intrigued enough to try to track them down.
The movie also partnered with Dr. Pepper, which will release a limited edition line of cans with the franchise’s dinosaur characters. One of the cans was even illustrated by “Fallen Kingdom” director J.A. Bayonna.
Dairy Queen is releasing a special “Jurassic Chomp” blizzard in a collectible cup.
Shoppers will also find dino-themed M&M’s, Skittles, Juicy Fruit, Kellogg’s cereal and Keebler Cookies. M&M’s released print adds with the “Jurassic World Food Chain,” depicting the red and yellow M&M characters under humans, who are in turn under different dinosaurs. It’s an entertaining, albeit kind of morbid, ad campaign.
And what would a promotional movie campaign be without toy tie-ins? Among other promotions, Ferrero is launching Kinder Joy products with special packaging and collectible dinosaur toys inside.
A film franchise with this much stuff going on—dinosaurs, Chris Pratt on a motorcycle, surprise Jimmy Buffett cameos (for real)—deserves a giant promo campaign like this. It gives advertising folks license to get as creative as they see fit, just like the fictional creators of Jurassic Park got creative with cloning dinosaurs and creating new ones. Although, some have called those decisions ill-advised.
