Call of Duty operators smashed through anamorphic billboards in three cities

For the Modern Warfare II launch, Activision's Call of Duty team partnered with experience-and-culture agency Amplify to use its iconic Taskforce 141 heroes in a massive, format-breaking way across three global cities.

Let the game's operators infiltrate the real world: anamorphic 3D billboards where MacTavish cracks through a glass door and Ghost emerges in night-vision goggles.

Anamorphic 3D OOH created with Inertia Studios: London's Piccadilly Lights hosted the glass-smash spot, a bespoke ad for New York's Times Square, an LA site, preceded earlier that month by a takeover of SoFi Stadium's 80-million-pixel Oculus board with Territory Studios to tease the launch.

No media results were published, but Call of Duty's Tyler Bahl reported the campaign 'extended far beyond the locations themselves and we saw huge amplification and resharing throughout our community'.

To launch Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II in October 2022, Activision partnered with Amplify, the global creative agency specialising in experience and culture, to put the game's central characters into bespoke anamorphic 3D billboards in Los Angeles, New York and London. Smashing through the screen, Sergeant Johnny MacTavish attempts a mission by cracking through a glass door; Lieutenant Simon Riley — Ghost — then commands attention as he appears from the undergrowth wearing night-vision goggles.

The canvases were chosen for spectacle: London's Piccadilly Lights carried the action, while New York's Times Square ran a bespoke ad featuring the other Taskforce 141 operators. 'In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II the ultimate weapon is team. So we created a real world narrative... as Taskforce 141 'Go Dark' in New York and London,' said Jeavon Smith, Amplify's CCO. 'A format breaking immersive OOH campaign, that sees operators infiltrate iconic locations around the world.' Amplify collaborated with Inertia Studios on the 3D anamorphic work.

The buildup had started earlier that month, when Amplify worked with Territory Studios on a takeover of SoFi Stadium's 'Oculus' video board — 80 million pixels — to tease the launch. 'The scope and scale of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II demanded a larger-than-life global campaign,' said Tyler Bahl, VP and head of marketing for Call of Duty, noting the campaign 'extended far beyond the locations themselves' with huge resharing across the community.

Anamorphic 3D made the game's photoreal operators look physically present in three of the world's most filmed locations.

Taskforce 141's characters are the franchise's IP moat — putting them in the real world turned ads into fan content triggers.

Landmark sites (Piccadilly Lights, Times Square, SoFi's 80M-pixel board) guaranteed organic filming, resharing and amplification.

A staged rollout — stadium tease first, then city takeovers — built a two-beat launch narrative.

Franchise launches win by making characters leak into the real world at landmark scale — the passers-by footage is the campaign, not a byproduct.

The billboards anchored the Modern Warfare II launch window in October 2022; per Call of Duty's marketing lead, the campaign spread far beyond the physical sites through community resharing. No quantitative media results were published.