As Hollywood gears up for the Oscars, one clever campaign on insiders’ lips isn’t for a real movie.
Awards pro Peggy Siegal sent out her annual Valentine’s Day card to over 1,000 filmmakers, studio execs and connected pals, casting herself in a fictional hard-boiled action epic, “Atomic Peggy.”
“The grand dame of awards season deserves the best,” explained Lionsgate branding and marketing guru Tim Palen, who invited Siegal for tea at his home studio in LA where he cooked up the concept.
“She asked if I had any ideas, and I’d been setting up this ‘Atomic Blonde’ kind of shoot” for another project. Ever-resourceful Siegal did her own hair and makeup, plus wardrobe, arriving with 10 dresses. Palen posed her in black with diamond-encrusted shades, pearls and a pistol that 007 would envy. He also came up with the perfect tag line for the hard-charging doyenne: “Send ca$h or bitcoin . . . because hearts are overrated” with a slick “Atomic Peggy” logo.
“I just put myself in his hands,” Siegal told us of the concept.
She’d sent out a homemade Valentine’s card for 10 years (“because we don’t have time at Christmas” with all the awards films).
Palen — who’s masterminded campaigns for “The Hunger Games” and “Divergent” franchises — then helped her take it to the next level last year with a “Fifty Shades of Grey” spin, complete with the tag-line, “A little shade never hurt anyone.”