Pereira O’Dell and Midea Offer New Yorkers Respite from the Heatwave with ’90 Minutes of Air Conditioning’ Screening

On 17th August, following the hottest July on record for New York City, with heat records being set in a number of US cities, air-conditioner brand Midea teamed up with creative agency Pereira O’Dell to treat New Yorkers to a 90-minute film featuring the Midea U, at Manhattan cinema ‘Village Easy by Angelika’.  

New Yorkers were able to escape the heat of the city to the air conditioned cinema, to attend the premiere of ‘90 minutes of air conditioning’ – a feature length film about an air conditioner cooling an NYC apartment - accompanied by free popcorn and soda.

Pereira O’Dell entertainment conceived the Warholian 90-minute film starring the air conditioning unit Midea U, seizing the moment of the record-breaking NYC summer heatwave, combined with the New York habit of escaping to an air-conditioned cinema when it’s really hot outside.

60 and 15 second clips of ‘90 Minutes of Air Conditioning’ will run on social channels and give more people the chance to ‘watch’ the film, and laugh at the insider joke riffing on the NYers habit of going to an air conditioned cinema to escape summer heatwaves.

Rather than tell people to turn off the phones, as is usual at the cinema, the film encouraged people to keep theirs on, chat during the movie, watch something on their phones and enjoy being cool.   

A film about an air conditioner. For 90 minutes. An epic feature length film created to be the perfect excuse, so that NYers could get some sweet sweet AC on a hot day. A cinematic experience designed to be viewed on the big screen of a chilly theater or at home with Midea’s best-selling window AC Unit, the Midea U.

Robert Lambrechts, chief creative officer, Pereira O’Dell described the 90 minutes of a single product shot as “Likely the longest product placement in the history of advertising.”

The Observer said of the film: “Today’s Coolest Movie: A 90-Minute Film of an Air Conditioner”

Movie goers lined up in Manhattan for the screening, commenting afterwards: “It was relaxing”, “The AC was Nice” and “Bring a date!”

Getting relief from the summer heat, especially in a densely populated city like New York can be hard, with many people waiting for sweet - or sweat - relief from the air conditioning at a store, on a train or in an icy cold movie theatre. So ’90 minutes of air conditioning’ was the perfect escape from the heat. The concept for the air-conditioning movie starring Midea U came from the habits of New Yorkers.

Robert Lambrechts explains: “I would describe it (New York) in a heatwave as the seventh circle of hell waiting on the subway platform. People will commonly go to movies for some relief from the ‘oppressive’ New York heat. One summer I even went to see the movie ‘Cowboys and Aliens’ twice in the movie theater for reprieve."

Attendees of the premier were offered a discount on a Midea AC unit, so that they could bring the air-conditioned movie-watching experience home. The draw is the chill, not the content. The film may make you fall asleep. It simply shows a Midea AC unit cooling an apartment with a person occasionally coming into frame.  

“When it’s a hard summer, you walk into any store - whether it’s a CVS or a clothing store - just to feel the AC,” said PJ Pereira, creative chairman, Pereira O’Dell.

Pereira says the idea for the marketing video came about three weeks ago, when he and other New Yorkers were enduring brutal temperatures in the city.  He says: “Viewers can just get dry and get their body temperature to a reasonable place, check their emails, make a couple phone calls if they want. It’s the same shot for 90 minutes. Nothing else happens.”

The Midea brand, which is headquartered in China, is using this campaign to break into the U.S. market. The film showcases its Midea U model, which is designed to have a window seal close over it, rather than having one that requires people to seal up with sides with duct tape or foam, making New York the best place to launch the brand and product, according to Lambrechts. The campaign will feature OOH as well and will hopefully expand outside of New York in the future.