Magnolia Bakery gave away cupcakes swirled with purple buttercream, while Cupcake from season six snapped selfies with fans.Photo: Courtesy of Cartwheel and Co.
On Sept. 23, the Fox show partnered with 10 businesses across the city to offer show-inspired freebies, such as goodr sunglasses, doughnuts, tacos, milkshakes, and more, and give fans the chance to see the show’s weird and wacky costumes up close.
The citywide takeover, dubbed Masked Mania, featured stops themed around various costumes and the number 10, such as $10 poke bowls with an extra helping of avocado at Sweetfin Poké, which hosted the Avocado costume—of course—and the debut of the show’s new Donut costume at Trejo’s Donuts along with free Berry Bomb doughnuts.
Other businesses included Los Angeles Ale Works, Fred Segal, Healthy Spot, Kreation, Trejo’s Tacos (Danny Trejo appeared on season three of the show), Hard Rock Cafe, goodr Cabana, and Magnolia Bakery. Integrated marketing agency Cartwheel and Co. coordinated the activation.
“The fact that LA is such a sprawling city was to our advantage for this 10-stop activation because we were able to surprise and delight in a wide variety of different neighborhoods and reach a broad cross-section of Angelenos with our giveaways and goodies,” explained Jill Hudson, senior vice president of publicity at Fox Entertainment, about activating in the city.
As for choosing the business partners, Hudson said that “geography played a factor, as we wanted this to feel like a true city takeover, so we were cognizant of selecting partners who reside in different neighborhoods throughout the city.” A custom Masked Mania map was available to fans to help them track the locations.
She added that the network wanted to “appeal to our broad audience, which meant that the retailers and giveaways had to reflect that. Having a wide variety of offerings was important to us.”
Keep scrolling to see more from the Masked Mania activation...
