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The Dictator Takes Over Cannes
Other | Tuesday 29th May 2012 | Osh
Cannes Film Festival is home to the latest and greatest films and actors in a prestigious annual showcase. But at this year’s 65th festival, a ‘Dictator’ is dominating attention.
Sacha Baren Cohen, the co-writer and star of ‘The Dictator’ which has already turned over $93,903,000 at the US Box Office after its released on the 16th of May. Despite Cohen’s signature controversial, borderline racist ideas, the film has received great reviews and a lot of positive public feedback.
Never one to fall short of going all out for publicity, Sacha Baren Cohen is well aware of how to promote and market. He was banned from the 84th Academy Awards because organisers were well aware he was planning a huge publicity stunt and wanted to know the details for security reasons.
Baron Cohen eventually appeared at the awards' red carpet with a pair of uniformed female bodyguards (resembling Gadhafi’s Amazonian Guards) and wielding an urn purportedly containing the ashes of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il. The ashes were later reported to be pancake mix.
He also released a video in the wake of the 2012 French Presidential Election, congratulating François Hollande on his victory. Baron Cohen also appeared in character with the pair of uniformed female bodyguards on the 7th of May on The Daily Show in America.
The endless publicity pranks are nothing compared to the stir ‘The Dictator’s’ caused at Cannes. Sacha has been as out-there as ever by taking a trip up the red carpet on a camel, proving that laughter really is infectious.
The actor and writer extraordinaire appeared at a news conference and rode for a mile down the road with some trouble, and went shopping at the boutique stores lining the street. He was mobbed by journalists and photographers, but brought to a stop by local Police, causing him to ride right on back to the prestigious Carlton Hotel.
He also hot-footed it to a luxury with models posing as his guards and girlfriends. He applied suntan cream over the women as he kept in character, as Admiral General Aladeen for most of the afternoon.
As imaginative as this stunt is, it’s not unseen at Cannes. DreamWorks Animation has used the festival to promote their latest releases by giving sneak-peeks of scenes, costumes and storylines. Sacha Baren Cohen also cavorted around promoting his 2006 flick ‘Borat’ in a lime green man-kini not too long ago.
With his wild imagination and hysterical characters and storylines, Baren Cohen is unstoppable, and only time will tell what he next marketing move will be.
Marianne Calnan
