CCommuters rushing through Grand Central Station on Tuesday were met with a strange sight: a glass cube filled with actors in business casual attire mimicking the everyday movements of office work. But if you paused for a minute – as many did – things looked a little different. The computers weren’t sleek Apple monitors, but rather old-school data processors. And yes, one of those actors was Adam Scott, star of Apple’s hit sci-fi drama Severance paywhich returns for a highly anticipated second season on January 17th.

For the uninitiated, the show centers on a group of workers who have agreed to undergo a severance process, a brain surgery that separates their work lives from their personal lives. The characters refer to these two roles as “Innies” and “Outies.” The outies go to the offices of the mysterious Lumon company and take the elevator down to the windowless “separated floor” where their “innie” arrives. The Outies can’t remember a single moment of menial labor during their workday. In contrast, their Innies lead a nightmarish existence. They’re trapped in Lumon’s offices, doomed to work on a boring but mysterious project without ever seeing the light of day – until the workers decide to rebel near the end of the show’s first season.

Ahead of the premiere on Friday The Apple TV+ marketing team recreated it severance pay’s drab-chic cabins in a glass box in the legendary train station’s Vanderbilt Hall, A place whose size belies the drudgery that so many commuters traverse. Actors from the series, including Scott, Britt Lower, John Turturro and Zach Cherry, toiled in their tiny office while Patricia Arquette and Tramell Tillman, who played their bosses, supervised their work. At one point, Arquette’s character “punished” Scott’s character by forcing him to stand in a corner and stare at spectators outside the penalty area.

Unsurprisingly, the pop-up went viral on social media, garnering mostly positive reactions. Whether it will improve Apple’s comparatively modest streaming numbers on one of its crown jewels remains to be seen. But judging by the public (online) mood – does this make us popular for the marketed product or does it make us want to boycott it? – the pop-up was a resounding success.

Audiences have been subjected to – or forced to endure, depending on how you look at it – an endless array of film and television marketing stunts in recent years. There was that Barbie The rush led to Warner Bros. and Mattel putting the iconic doll branding on products ranging from pool floats to rugs. The star of this film, Margot Robbie, literally dressed like real Barbies for months. Meanwhile, Zendaya mastered the art of themed dressing on the red carpet, impressing in her tennis-inspired outfits challenger and their futuristic appearance Dune: Part 2.

The Evil The marketing team took pages from both Barbie and Zendaya’s books: they produced Evil– Themes like macaroni and cheese, crocodiles and tequila, and their stars dress in pink and green for every appearance on the red carpet, at junkets and even in the stands at the Olympics. (Barbie collaborated with 165 brands in 2023. Evil has exceeded this by collaborating with 400 brands in 2024.)

There are star-dependent marketing gambits, like Timothée Chalamet’s recent epic series, which appeals to almost every group of moviegoers before its release his biopic about Bob Dylan, A complete unknown. He impressed with his picks on ESPN’s College GameDay, appeared in his own lookalike contest and (oddly enough) went live on Instagram to rock out to the Black Eyed Peas song “I’ve Gotta Feeling.” We live in time Star Andrew Garfield’s flirtatious meal with Amelia Dimoldenberg continues Date at the chicken shop went viral last fall, as did his tearful guest appearance on Modern love Podcast.

Then there are marketing campaigns that don’t rely on celebrity. Instead, they aim to go viral through shock value, like the creepily smiling fans sitting behind the dugout advertising at a playoff game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets Smile 2or the Bigfoot found last spring wandering through Central Park to advertise Sasquatch sunset. Interactive experiences are now becoming available through shows like Squid game Invite fans to do it for the ‘Gram.

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The Severance pay Stunt is characterized by the fact that it combines these two approaches: curiosity-provoking stunt multiplied by a factor of star power. Zendaya’s couture metallic Thierry Mugler suit may have caught fans’ attention, but her ability to pull off this futuristic piece makes her untouchable. Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo’s “hold space” lyrics to “Defying Gravity” went viral because their highly emotional reaction seemed so unusual – at least to those of us non-theater kids. These famous people are not like us.

It’s rare to see celebrities in the wild, let alone celebrities willing to sit in the middle of one of North America’s busiest train stations and be stared at like animals in a zoo. And while Scott isn’t quite Zendaya-level famous yet, he’s probably too popular to take the time to put on some sort of play in midtown Manhattan on top of the weeks of interviews (including with this magazine) he’s already done to promote the show.

Ben Stiller, director, executive producer and key figure The creative force behind the show is certainly too famous to show up at this pop-up, let alone stand outside among the crowd and take photos with his smartphone like a proud father at his child’s dance recital. The fact that they all took part in the stunt is a testament not only to their commitment to the show, but also to their willingness to meet the audience where they are, literally.

And of course the stunt works on a deeper level. The workers at Lumon are constantly monitored and have no sense of privacy. Placing the actors in the glass box highlights the spooky themes of the science fiction series Surveillance capitalism.

Severance pay is the kind of puzzle box show that attracts a rabid fanbase obsessed with piecing together the clues and unraveling its mysteries: What is the evil Lumon company up to? Why is the company specifically monitoring Adam Scott’s character Mark? Why are there baby goats in Lumon’s offices? The pop-up is aimed not only at these fans, who no doubt enjoyed searching for even more Easter eggs in the Mini-Lumon office, but also at Passers-by on their daily commute who may have never seen an episode but, thanks to this curiosity, now will.

If only they had managed to recreate the show’s famous music/dance experience – or at least a waffle party.