Marvel’s big summer superhero blockbuster of the moment is “Ant-Man,” starring Paul Rudd, and the studio is working to get a special billboard for the movie placed in a Canadian town—of six residents.
As part of Marvel Canada’s marketing strategy for the film, it has placed more than 2,500 miniature billboards (a nod to the size of the character, who can shrink to an ant’s level) all over the country so far. They range in size, and the smallest of them is just one-foot tall. But Marvel Canada is especially interested in placing one of those billboards in Tilt Cove, Newfoundland, CBC News reports. Marvel Canada tweeted its wishes:
Help us get one of these #AntManMiniBoards to Canada's smallest town #TiltCove#Newfoundland. Pic.twitter.com/uONLMX94yO
— Marvel Studios Canada (@MarvelStudiosCA) July 14, 2015
“It’s a perfect match, in our minds,” Disney marketing exec Greg Mason told CBC in an on-air interview. “We’ve had this interesting campaign where we have these mini-sized billboards… It crossed our minds that wouldn’t it be fantastic to have the smallest billboard in Canada in the smallest town, which is Tilt Cove.”
Tilt Cove was established in the late 1800s and was a mining destination, originally with a population of more than 1,000. It’s now down to six, and three of those six folks sit on the town council.
Luckily, it sounded like the Tilt Cove council is in support of the billboard.
Mason told CBC that Disney had not yet heard from Tilt Cove, and the radio station then surprised him by bringing on Margaret Collins, the town clerk. Asked if the town would be willing to have the minuscule billboard, Collins told Mason, “I guess so… There’s lots of places to put it.”
You could say that Marvel and Margaret Collins was a match made in Canadian radio heaven. The film comes out in the States this weekend.