Behold! The lowest of the low-budget hidden-camera pranks has been created for discount retailer Ocean State Job Lot, and it is steeped in local commercial magic.
The chain, with 116 stores in the northeast, hired MMB in Boston to make this spectacle whose meager production budget perfectly matched the message that the store is committed to low prices. In fact, if they had spent much more, the video wouldn't have been nearly as good.
In the clip, several bewildered customers are given the option to go on an Adventure Quest to win a heater. It starts when they ring a bell and get a blast of fake snow to the face. Then, Old Man Winter, a character from OSJL's TV spot, tells them that Santa has been captured by the wicked Markup King (the guy who works at the mall) and they need to set him free.
Setting him free and winning the heater, however, involves an obstacle course with light-string barbed-wire, wreath tires to run through, a snowball catapult, and more fake snow to the face while a mildly deranged elf named TutTut does her shrillest drill sergeant impression.
Once through the course, they're led to what is clearly the employee room, welcomed by Santa and forced to search the mailbox block/advent calendar and get more snow in the face before Santa's true game is revealed!
And of course, there are lots of trumpets. Because everyone loves trumpets.
