These IRL 'Handmaids' are creeping people out
Keep South By weird.
On Friday and Saturday — the first two days of the Austin tech and entertainment festival — attendees spotted women dressed as Handmaids and almost entirely naked men and women walking around in the rain.
The Handmaids were there to promote Hulu's upcoming dystopian show The Handmaid's Tale and the naked models were there promoting cable network Bravo's upcoming show Stripped.
It's raining on @Bravotv's #stripped people at #sxsw, making an uncomfortable stunt even more awkward. pic.twitter.com/V1xjLR7Zyt
— Adweek (@Adweek) March 11, 2017
Marketing at its finest.
SEE ALSO: 'The Mashable Show' is going out with a bang for its final Twitter Live at SXSW
While unique activations and promotion for shows and movies are common at SXSW, the dressed up (or not dressed up) people on the streets stood out to passersby.
All these (presumably) Handmaid's Tale folks are scaring me. #sxsw pic.twitter.com/VkXHYzhsUI
— Anthony Balderrama (@anthelonious) March 10, 2017
@Bravotv is definitely breaking through the marketing clutter @sxsw with this can't miss stunt to promote their new show #Stripped #sxsw pic.twitter.com/yB4IBO1eO0
— Dealey Group (@TheDealeyGroup) March 11, 2017
We see your marketing efforts @Bravotv and give you an A+ 👀🙊👌🏼 #STRIPPED #sxsw2017 #sxsw #austin pic.twitter.com/VN0JISefsq
— SPROCKIT (@SPROCKIT4Glory) March 11, 2017
I want to believe that the women walking around sxsw dressed as breeders from Handmaiden’s Tale are part of PR stunt. But.
— Ana Marie Cox (@anamariecox) March 10, 2017
Hulu's 10-episode series, based on the best-selling book, follows people in a dystopia called Gilead — a totalitarian society, once part of the U.S., rooted in twisted religious fundamentalism. It's a place where a class of women are subjugated and used only for reproduction.
Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men) stars as one of the world's few remaining fertile women, Offred. Orange is the New Black star Samira Wiley plays Moira, Offred's best friend from college and fellow handmaid-in-training, and Alexis Bledel plays Ofglen, an ally to Offred.
Joseph Fiennes, Yvonne Strahovski, Max Minghella, Madeline Brewer, Ann Dowd and O-T Fagbenle also co-star.
The series debuts on April 26. Hulu is co-hosting a Handmaid's Tale party with Twitter at SXSW.
Meanwhile, Stripped is set to debut this summer.
Other activations at South By include: a giant buffalo to promote American Gods, a Resistance Radio station for Amazon's The Man in the High Castle, a Twin Peaks themed restaurant called Double R Diner and a Better Call Saul pop-up of Los Pollos Hermanos.
I once saw a movie with a giant white buffalo in it. It scared the crap out of me. #SXSW #MashSXSW #austinweird pic.twitter.com/p8letNJhzA
— Lance Ulanoff (@LanceUlanoff) March 11, 2017