German Ad Campaign Targets Female Viewers of 'The Walking Dead'

Images courtesy of THR

We don’t think it’s any surprise here in the good ol’ USA that “The Walking Dead” is popular with females. We dig horror too! And Daryl. And Rick. Well, in Germany, a new ad campaign is targeting their female population, and we thought it was pretty clever.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Pay-TV network Fox Germany has launched an ambush campaign targeting female fans of 'The Walking Dead,' using electronic billboards in Berlin subway stations that feature models who morph into zombies.”

The billboard which appears to be advertising a boring old cleansing routine, suddenly becomes an ad for the series. Now maybe this is a little insulting that we gals need that much make-up to cover our flaws but it’s still in good fun…and savvy marketing. Best part? As folks get near the ad, and the lovely model changes into the scary zombie, "The Walking Dead" logo and the tagline "Season Four First on Fox” appears.

Dennis Pfisterer, Creative Managing Director at Berlin agency Saint Elmo’s provides this (obvious?) statement, ”The campaign was inspired by a surprising insight – that the horror genre is now as popular with women as it is with men. We drastically countered the outdated cliche that all horror fans are male by using a cliched image in the style of a beauty product ad, so that we could appeal above all to female horror fans, alongside male fans, with this concept of a ‘makeup removal program for good TV nights’”.

What do you think of the ad? Clever? Insulting? Effective? Why do you think females love the show?

"The Walking Dead" returns to our country on Sunday,  February 9 at 9 p.m. ET.

-Larissa Mrykalo