Iron Maiden turn to a ‘flash mob’ to promote their South American tour

Posted on 10. Mar, 2009 by Jonathan Cherry in Branding

There was however only one problem with the strategy. Say the word 'mob' to a bunch of metalheads and they'll 9 times out of ten turn to throwing bottles, rocks and garden furniture at the cops.

All the same, this is Iron Maiden we're talking about [not Coldplay] and thanks to the stunt, the aging British rockers have got their streetcred back [because South American police have vowed NEVER to allow a heavymetal band to tour there again] and the BBC and SKY News are dishing out loads of free publicity to Bruce and his merry band of pirates.

Needless to say – the rest of the tour is sold out.

More:

Iron Maiden fans riot at concert – Youtube
Iron Maiden fans riot in Columbia – BBC
Aces High [the track that started the mayhem] – Youtube

3 Responses to “Iron Maiden turn to a ‘flash mob’ to promote their South American tour”

clive

10. Mar, 2009

Iron maiden dont need to pull stunts to sell out. The concerts were already sold out. I saw em in Sydney last year and the 20000 strong crowd sold out in 2 hours. Iron Maiden respond to petitons from fans and go and play where they are wanted. They are very much wanted in south america, as well as most of the world. The riots were an over reaction from police and was just kids wanting to see there idols. They should have just let them in. You should be pointing out the overly aggressive police presence. If you dont acknowledge reality, your comments will produce unpredictable consequences down the track. Your article and reality are very far apart. If you dont like Maiden thats ok. If you want to be a social commentator, please remove your preconceived biases from your comments. Maiden do not promote anything other than positive ideas. Violence and anarchy are not what they are about. I think if you want any credibility, you should acknowledge the huge worldwide adoration of maiden, be grateful they toured your country and dont let your biases influence your reporting. Iron Maiden are horrified about the incident. They did not stage it.
Cherryflava

10. Mar, 2009

Hey Clive – lighten up China. Our tongue doesn’t spend much time away from the far reaches of our cheek – or other interesting places for that matter.
If you have a direct line to Mr Dickenson – please tell him to get Flight 666 down to Cape Town ASAP. We need a little Powerslave next to the ocean over here.
flashmob.tv Team

04. Nov, 2009

If you need to promote your concert, please DON´T register them at http://www.flashmob.tv next time. Flasmob.tv is the first and only global flash mob database – for REAL flashmobbers only!