ABC Family: Calling All Elves
Network Looks To Set Guinness Record Dec. 7 With More Than 250 Elves At Manhattan's Bryant Park
Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 11/24/2009 7:57:55 AM
If ABC Family gets its holiday wish, a record number of people dressed like elves will descend on Manhattan's Bryant Park today.
To support its original holiday movie Santa Baby 2: Christmas Maybe and trumpet its perennial "25 Days of Christmas" programming event, ABC Family will attempt to set a new Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of Kris Kringle's "elves" in one place (this side of the North Pole, of course).
The network is inviting people to its "World Record Elf Party" on Dec. 7 from noon to 2 p.m. at The Pond at Bryant Park between 40th and 42nd Streets and 5th Avenue and Avenue of the America.
ABC Family staffers and executives, joined by the telefilm's stars Jenny McCarthy and Dean McDermott, will hand out elfin costumes to kids and young-at-heart adults. The goal: a Guinness-record gathering of over 250 elves. Prizes, including a flat-screen TV, also will be distributed.
"ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas is the biggest event in cable, so it's only appropriate that this is the biggest event we've undertaken as a network," said Danielle Mullin, vice president of marketing, ABC Family, who said there are also costumes for infants. "We want this to be a great family event."
The network is pushing the word out about the event via media relations outreach, messaging on ABCFamily.com and local New York radio station, Z100, as well as Facebook and Twitter.
As for the event itself, it has invited print, TV and online news organizations, and bloggers for coverage. "We have all the ingredients in place for success," said Mullin.
Part of its more than 200 hours of 25 Days of Christmas holiday fare, Santa Baby 2: Christmas Maybe stars McCarthy as Santa's business-minded daughter Mary Class --she changed her name to remain anonymous in her job as a marketing executive in New York-- who, upon returning home must contend both with Santa's mid-life crisis and his elves going on strike right at the height of Christmas madness. Santa's tired of the responsibilities of the job and is ready to pass on the reins to Mary, who feels torn between the family business and running her own high stakes firm in Manhattan, along with balancing a relationship with the love of her life, Luke (Dean McDermott). The situation gets increasingly dire when a disgruntled former elf, Teri (Kelly Stables), in cunning disguise, sows dissension at the North Pole in an effort to take over Christmas.
The telefilm bows on Dec. 13 at 8 p.m. (ET/PT).
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