Lyft is making some pretty weird PR moves

Have you always wanted to pretend you’re part of the Ghostbusters squad and take a ride in an Ecto-1? That’s kind of a specific dream, weird. But, as it happens, you’re in luck.
In preparation for the July 15 release of the rebooted Ghostbusters movie (this time with an all-woman ghost-busting squad), Lyft has teamed up with Sony to introduce a limited-time offer they’re calling “Ghost Mode.”
We’re not kidding.
July 1-2, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. local time, riders in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston and, yes, D.C., will be able to use Ghost Mode to get a free ride in an Ecto-1 that, according to Lyft, is either an original from the new film or a replica.
Impressively this is not the first time Lyft has done this kind of thing, but it does appear to be the first time one of the ridesharing company’s special “modes” has graced D.C.
(D.C. did, however, get “Lyft Gift Roulette” during the holidays.)
The company has also orchestrated “McFly Mode” on Back to the Future Day, “Zombie Mode” on Halloween and “Prank Mode” on April Fools’ Day. Ethan Eyler, who has the amazing title of “Innovation Brand Manager” at Lyft, expects this to be “the best yet,” though.
There’s even a promo video for Ghost Mode, as you can see below. We’ve got a lot of thoughts about this video, including, Wow, that pink chalk stuff is really beautifully shot, and, Is that a Twinkie flying through the air? and, Honestly, this seems more dangerous than a Lyft ride should be. We’ll just let you check it out for yourselves:

And if your follow-up question is Who thinks of these things?, then this Verge profile of Eyler, Lyft’s “resident merry prankster” is really worth a read.
The piece paints Eyler’s work as part of a Lyft identity that’s whimsical and startup-y and not-so-stuffy. It all makes us wonder how important these kinds of stunts are to Lyft’s branding vis-a-vis its competitors in the ridesharing space. Is this what the battle for ridesharing supremacy looks like, or is it just a bit of fun?