Great Scott! A phrase that’ll probably be muttered by plenty of people today as we all celebrate Back to the Future Day. The film was released in the United Kingdom on December 4th, 1985, but the date that Marty McFly and Doc Brown visited in the second film was October 21st, 2015; so, October 21st each year marks Back to the Future Day.
Similarly to other national days, including Star Wars Day on May 4th, many brands come together and release limited-edition products, promotional videos, and more to treat film fans across the internet.
Keep reading and check out some of our favourite Back to the Future campaigns.
Burger King, France
Burger King, one of the world’s favourite fast food chains, decided to announce Hovertrays in their nod to Back to the Future Day. Burger King France’s YouTube channel released a video to highlight a super handy method for eating your delicious Whoppers®.
Have you ever visited your local Burger King joint but struggled to find somewhere to sit? Well, the Hovertray means you no longer need a chair to be able to chow down on your burgers, nuggets, or fries.
Burger King really said, “Chairs?! Where we’re going, we don’t need chairs!”
Nike Self-Lacing Shoes
The self-lacing shoes are probably the most desired item from the Back to the Future franchise after appearing in the second film. Nike also realised this, so it decided to release a limited-edition shoe called the Nike Mag.
Only 1,599 pairs were released, with the first batch launching in 2011 and the second in 2016. Whilst they were mainly produced for display purposes, it didn’t stop Nike from releasing a promotional ad for the release. American comedian Bill Hader, basketball player Kevin Durant and Back to the Future star Christopher Lloyd were featured, with the ad getting plenty of film fans excited about the shoe’s announcement.
All proceeds from the shoes were donated to the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which is dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease.
Universal Pictures
Fresh from the release of the highly-acclaimed Jaws 18, Universal Pictures treated us all to a trailer for the next instalment in the franchise: Jaws 19.
The tagline for this film, “this time, it’s really, really personal.” is an updated version of that of Jaws: The Revenge and really showcases the dramatic effect that this film will aim to instil upon us.
We’re wondering if Jaws 19 will be able to top the blockbuster that was Jaws 17: Fifty Scales of Grey; Jamie Dorsal Fin & Dolph-kota Johnson were great in that one!
Miami Marlins - #RewriteTheFuture
This prediction from the film is surprising because in 1989, when Back to the Future II was in cinemas, Miami had no baseball team. Now, the Miami Marlins compete in the NFL division of Major League Baseball.
The Marlins used the hashtag RewriteTheFuture in the hopes that they could change the film’s prophecy where the Cubs smash them. The team from Miami hosted various events around this period, one of which was a 3-day homestand versus the Cubs.
An added bonus is that a portion of the proceeds from their Back to the Future events in June will go to the Michael J. Fox Foundation. The Marlins also won 2 out of the 3 games against the Cubs that month, so it seems like whatever they did worked.
WWF - #BackToTheFuture
A slightly different approach from WWF here. The international charity aimed to raise awareness of Asia’s depleting population of wild tigers.
They used the hashtag BackToTheFuture to demonstrate that, whilst we can’t go back in time to when this wonderful creature was so densely populated in Asia, we can look to the future and do something about this issue.
In 2015, WWF reported the number of wild tigers to be 3,200 and hoped that number could be doubled by 2022. Supposedly, the number now is between 3,726 and 5,578, so not double, but a step in the right direction.
Ikea
Everyone’s favourite Swedish home store is well-known for its easy-to-use furniture instructions, and this one is perhaps the easiest to navigate.
With only 6 components, you, too, can create your own IKEA Hoverboard and zip around like Marty McFly. The ability to quickly fly to the Greggs around the corner in a flash is a dream of ours, so please, IKEA, make this dream a reality!
Pepsi - Pepsi Perfect
Being able to cash in on limited-edition products two decades after you’ve been in a blockbuster film is probably something that most brands want to be able to do. Pepsi announced that 6,500 bottles of Pepsi Perfect would be released online for film fans to purchase.
The price of $20.15 seems quite high, but their collectable value will be worth much more. 1,500 bottles were also made and handed out to Marty McFly cosplayers at Comic-Con that year.
Greggs
Whilst Greggs is known for feeding hungover individuals, they decided to reveal that they’ve also been fuelling DeLorians for the last 30 years. The accompanying image shows Doc Brown inserting sausage rolls into the car’s fuel tank, with Marty and Jennifer looking absolutely bewildered.
The popular bakers have been scrutinised for photoshopping their flaky items into images before; we all remember when they swapped Baby Jesus for a sausage roll and caused anger among certain Twitter users.
Nonetheless, we don’t endorse shoving sausage rolls into your car, so please don’t come for us if you decide to do so and find that it doesn’t get you to the shops and back.
Mercedes
Mercedes cracked the code with their post for Back to the Future Day. The German brand paid homage to the film’s scientist, Doc Brown, by saying “thank you” for inspiring their engineers.
Earlier that year, Mercedes released plans for their ultra-futuristic car, the F 015 Luxury in Motion, a completely autonomous car that is apparently “inventing new possibilities in vehicle design, packaging and connectivity.”
Their promotional video showed a drone walking a dog, something that can also be seen in Back to the Future II. The whole video aimed to highlight how far-forward the company is in a technological sense.
So, there you have it. A few of our favourite Back to the Future marketing campaigns that celebrate this fantastic day. Are there any others that you’ve found? Let us know via our social accounts.
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