It seems so obvious at first: a billboard for a show about vampires replete with wooden stakes and oozing blood. There’s even a ‘break in case of vampires’ box containing a wooden stake to drive the home the message. Cute.
The show in question is Dracula, the three-part BBC mini-series based on Bram Stoker’s famous bloodsucker and adapted by Sherlock creators Mark Gatiss and Steve Moffat. The series, starring Danish actor Claes Bang as Count Dracula, is streaming on Netflix here.
But there’s more to this ad than meets the eye. Look closer: the stakes aren’t randomly placed. When the light is switched on at night, the stakes cast a shadow of — you guessed it — the big fangster himself. Subtle yet striking.
These billboards, created by BBC Creative, are found in London and Birmingham. To see how the cool billboard comes to life, check out this time-lapse video.
This BBC advertising for Dracula is genius. A series of bloody stakes protruding from a billboard. Seemingly random, until darkness falls and they begin to cast a shadow. Fabulous. pic.twitter.com/84aIl7o97r
— Alex Andreou (@sturdyAlex) January 3, 2020
. And if you have troubling viewing the video, here's how it looks.
Dracula is now streaming on Netflix.
Photos: Netflix, BBC Creative