Front Line also went for the killer visitor experience at Vaper Expo
- The Big Weekend.
In keeping with the juice line’s military theme their interactive stand
featured a top secret former Cold War nuclear bunker which has
been taken over as the new HQ for Front Line’s juice production.
However experimental gas was accidentally leaked into the
bunker in 1966 and now the ghosts of military personnel wearing
gas masks haunt the facility.
If you imagine a theme park ghost ride then you have the idea
behind this adventure. It was designed to scare visitors and it was
quite a scary experience with unexpected events at every twist
and turn inside the ‘facility’ being toured.
From the moment you entered it was very dark. Visitors were led
into a vestibule area and asked to watch a short TV presentation
which gave some information about the facility where Front Line
now made their juices.
“Welcome to the Frontline secret military facility,” read the
message on the wide screen TV.…you are about to embark on an
access-all-areas tour of the front line liquid HQ.”
The message kept flickering on and off and going in and out of
focus. This is exactly the kind of effect you see in sci-fi movies
where the hero is trying to coax an abandoned spacecraft back
to life.
Normally the flickering screens mean something is about to go
badly wrong and this was exactly what was about to happen to
the Front Line visitors.
Soon the image on the screen faded, the room went dark and
there was a brief period of silence only punctuated by screams
from among the visitors.
A klaxon sounded and staff told visitors they had to leave the
facility without delay. As people left there were sparks, loud
noises, tumbling barrels, blasts of air and all accompanied by lots
of screams.
This was scary, very enjoyable and a lot of fun.
Conclusion:
For me, I thought Front Line had the
edge over Riot Squad because it was so
totally different and unexpected to have
a house-of-horrors type experience at a
Vaper Expo.
Riot Squad did better at integrating the
overall visitor experience with the launch
of their new juice and full marks to them
for getting everyone talking about Iron
Bruise which, after all, was a key objective
of the experience.
VAPOUROUND MAGAZINE ISSUE 11 135