Businesses are using theatrical stunts not for shock alone but to create viral content and drive sales conversations online
When Lunos, an AI startup in New York City, was gearing up for launch, its founder and chief executive, Duncan Barrigan, and his team wanted to make a splash. So they shelled out $3,500 to do the unconventional: hire a horse and a cowboy to lasso the bull of Wall Street.
On a sweltering evening in late September, the cowboy galloped toward the iconic sculpture in lower Manhattan. Wearing ranch gear and a western hat stamped with the Lunos logo, he lassoed the bull’s horns as invitees and curious passersby watched. He and the horse then circled the statue, handing out cowboy hats and branded stress balls.
The goal was simple: deliver Lunos’s pitch of “taming the wild west” of accounts receivables in the most literal, public way possible. The startup uses AI to automate invoices, track balances and follow up on payments.
“We were trying to figure out in a sea of sameness how we could stand out as a startup to be reckoned with,” said Alex Mann, Lunos’s head of growth.
With more than 90,000 AI companies worldwide, according to one tally, many businesses promising to automate the same tasks across work and daily life are having increasing difficulty differentiating themselves by their products alone. Many AI companies geared towards businesses have relied on hype-filled messaging delivered through predictable channels like trade shows, white papers, billboards and digital ads. A live stunt in front of the Wall Street bull represents a departure in form that can feel oddly out of sync with the conventional back-office software these companies build.
The stunt reflects a broader shift among AI companies turning to provocative marketing to stand out in an overcrowded, capital-rich sector. In 2025 alone, AI startups raised roughly $202.3bn globally, up from $114bn the year before, according to Crunchbase. Digital ad spending for generative AI apps also surpassed $200m in Q2 2025, SensorTower data shows.
As standard claims about productivity and speed blur together, some startups are abandoning corporate messaging in favor of spectacle. And while these stunts appear to be working, marketing experts say the shift reflects an industry under mounting pressure.
Startups such as Artisan AI, Cluely and Friend have provoked backlash for ads implying their tools could replace human workers, help cheat in job interviews or substitute for real friendships: decisions that critics say amount to distasteful messaging orchestrated for “ragebaiting”.
Wary of similar accusations, business-focused AI startups are experimenting with less controversial gimmicks for a range of reasons.
For Virio, the draw is viral content. In September, the AI marketing startup hired cowboys to walk two horses around the Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco during HubSpot Inbound, a major marketing conference. From 8am to 11am, co-founder Emmett Chen-Ran walked beside the horses holding a Virio banner reading “Content that drives pipeline.”
The aim was to catch the attention of founders and C-suite leaders at companies with 50 or more employees, Virio’s target customers. Chen-Ran said such theatrics are rare in the B2B world, where companies sell products to other companies rather than consumers, giving the stunt an added novelty. The real goal, though, was for conference attenders to take photos and share them on LinkedIn, fueling the online engagement at the center of Virio’s marketing strategy.
