A fleet of eye-catching billboards has popped up near campus, posing on interesting question — “Still a Virgin?”
The ads — which offer a toll free number virgins can call “for help” — are part of the marketing campaign for “The Virginity Hit,”  a new comedy film co-produced by Will Ferrell and filmed in New Orleans.
The billboards have drawn many responses, according to Adam McKay, co-producer of “The Virginity Hit.”
“We’ve been getting lots of calls from curious people,” McKay said. “It has caused a big stir in many places.”
For the film’s marketing campaign, producers tried more innovative methods to coincide with the unique combination of fiction and scripted reality, McKay said.
Many students’ first reactions to the ads were shock and confusion.
“I was in disbelief,” said Joshua Hamburg, undeclared freshman. “I didn’t know what to think. I was shocked by it, surprised.”
Other students thought the billboards were more serious.
“I thought it was a rape or domestic abuse poster, trying to bring awareness to those issues,” said Vincent DiBella, finance freshman. “I wasn’t clear on what the ad was. … I wasn’t sure it was for a movie or just a joke.”
Marketing professor Danny Weathers believes the signs represent shock-and-awe marketing.
“It makes public a topic that is typically very private, so people are shocked when they see these signs,” Weathers said in an email to The Daily Reveille.
The film, a comedy about a character trying to lose his virginity, was screened Wednesday at Rave Motion Pictures. days before its official Sept. 10 release.
“We chose Baton Rouge because we wanted to do it in a college town, and LSU is a happening campus,” said Tammy Terrio, junior account executive of Moroch Agency, which worked on promoting the film.
Many students were drawn to the screening by the creative marketing.
“I heard that Will Ferrell produced the movie, so I was interested,” said Daniella Bryant, mathematics junior. “I saw a trailer on someone’s Facebook wall, and it looked cool.”
Residents of Brightside Drive received free passes for the private screening, said Hannah Connelly, mathematics junior.
“I saw the ads everywhere, and I finally called the number. It was hilarious,” Connelly said. “I found the free pass on my door, and it seemed cool, so I’m here.”
The film’s guerrilla ad campaign is the brainchild of the cast and crew of “The Virginity Hit,” said Zack Pearlman, star of the movie.
“Our producer, Owen Burke, he’s the man behind all the funny stuff. … We had all pitched ideas for the phone line, but he came up with most of it,” Pearlman said.
When one calls the phone number listed on the billboards, a recording of Pearlman asks the caller to “press 1 if you’re a virgin … 2 if you’re trying to help a friend out.”
The recording includes advice like, “Stop referring to yourself as your online avatar … and memorize all the lines from that vampire movie” to get a girlfriend.
The film and its tongue-in-cheek advertisements come from the founders of “Funny or Die,” a comedy video website where comedians can showcase new material. McKay and Ferrell are co-founders of that website.
McKay said the marketing campaign was inspired by the originality of the movie.
“The marketing campaign came out of the fact that the movie is so unique and unusual. We wanted something more immediate and real,” McKay said.
Scenes in the movie were shot in the style of a YouTube video, McKay said.
“The characters are actual people, and a lot of the movie was improvised. It made the movie flow better,” he said.
The film was shot in New Orleans because of the city’s character, McKay said.
“We decided to shoot in New Orleans because we wanted to show people being people,”  McKay said. “Everyone saw the images from [Hurricane] Katrina, and we wanted to show that people are still living their normal lives.”
Pearlman said the film’s high-profile producers made the experience memorable.
“Working with [Will Ferrell] was like a dream come true,” Pearlman said. “Even though he was super busy, he was very involved in the whole process and gave notes on everything.”
Weathers said the film has succeeded in creating big buzz.
“My preacher mentioned the signs during her sermon last Sunday,” he said. “They’ve done a great job of creating word of mouth.”
 
 
 
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Contact Kittu Pannu at [email protected]