“Some people play with blocks; we play with shipping containers,” deadpanned Syyn Labs president Adam Sadowsky, director of the latest launch stunt produced via MTh for the new Chevy Sonic. To introduce the all-new 2012 Sonic with a bang, Chevrolet agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners commissioned the mischievous rocket scientists at Syyn Labs to devise an unforgettable stunt that would incorporate online and social media fan participation. The stunt was viewed live at www.letsdothis.com.

“We decided to keep it simple,” joked Sadowsky. “Build a 90-foot tall structure out of shipping containers, have a Chevy Sonic slowly get pushed off the edge through a gear system that inches forward based on clicks of viewers interacting with the stunt in real time on the Chevy Sonic website. The car will get caught by bungee cables connecting it to a 90-ton hydraulic crane parked directly opposite the structure.”

The Syyn Labs team spent a week building the tower structure starting with approximately 80,000 pounds of ballast at the bottom over a steel support deck. The shipping containers were stacked, aligned with pins and chained together—wider at the bottom to provide strong support. The structure was topped with a second steel deck and custom-made rail system that allowed the car to slide without any friction. The rail system was welded onto the length of a 53-foot run, cantilevered 50 feet out over the edge of the tower so that prior to dropping, it would appear as if the Sonic is floating in mid-air.

Positioned near the car on the upper deck was a large finger pointer sign mimicking a computer’s cursor. This sign lit up as fans clicked on the Chevy Sonic site driving software, in turn, triggering a custom-designed gear system that moved the car slowly forward. The gear system ran on a one-horsepower motor to move 14 interlocking handmade, toothed gears (some weighing over 100 pounds each) that slowly inched the car forward out on the rails. Several cameras placed around the tower offered several birds-eye-view vantage points of the stunt live via www.letsdothis.com. When enough clicks had driven the car across the platform and the car teetered on the edge, someone’s final click set the bungee adventure in motion. The stunt took place Wednesday, October 19.