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Inside ‘Wicked’s’ Marketing Blitz: How Universal Courted 400 Brands and Spent Big to Guarantee the Musical Was ‘Everywhere’


Universal spared no expense in painting the globe pink and green in anticipation of “Wicked.”

Manhattan’s Empire State Building was illuminated in pink and green, the signature colors of the film’s witchy protagonists, while earlier this year, stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande stopped by the Summer Olympic games in Paris in Elphaba and Glinda cosplay. It’s all been meticulously designed by Universal’s chief marketing officer Michael Moses, who told movie theater owners that his mission with “Wicked” was being “just short of obnoxious.” In the wake of its decades-in-the-making debut, Moses divulged the aggressive and expensive strategy to turn “Wicked” into the biggest Broadway adaptation of all time… and his plans to recapture the magic all over again for “Part Two” in November 2025.

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