When it comes to publicity stunts, Disney takes the cake. Back in 2009, in order to promote the movie ‘UP’ releasing in theaters in Europe, Disney created a magical looking hot air balloon with an inflatable house that looked just like the one from the movie. The UP balloon was created in England. It took 6 months to build and consisted of 550 individual balloons sewn onto a hair air balloon that also had a balloon print. The large floating object made a few stopped around mainland Europe including Disneyland Paris and the Metz-Lorraine balloon fiesta which is the worlds largest hot-air balloon celebration.
It’s most dramatic and most important stop required the help of some onlookers and had to be executed at 1 percise time. “When Disney had asked about a stunt and suggested flying over Tower Bridge, Exclusive Ballooning (their balloon marketing company) suggested flying under it instead. It was simple, if we could pull this off it would be one of the most famous ballooning stunts ever” one of the creators told us.
“We inflated around 4:30am and began the trip up the Thames. The wind was stiff and we used around three hours of fuel over thirty minutes in order to keep the balloon upright. We reached the bridge right on time and had the surreal experience of ‘flying’ underneath it. The resulting pictures and TV footage went global and included a double page spread in the Guardian as well as headline TV news on every continent in the world.”
This isn’t the only ‘UP’ inspired object to go into the air! Someone actually attached thousands of balloons to a house and watched it float away… You have to see this: