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A&E's 'Hammer Pants Dance' = Viral Gold

June 12 2009, Mike Shields, Adweek

NEW YORK A&E has a viral sensation on its hands thanks to the gold pants and retro dance moves of rapper MC Hammer.

The network, as part of an extensive digital promotional effort for its upcoming reality series Hammertime, commissioned a group of 60 amateur dancers for a flash mob. The group entered a Los Angeles clothing store on Sunset Boulevard, collectively donned Hammer-inspired pairs of gold baggy pants, and performed the artist’s unique set of horizontal moves to the tune of his 1990 hit “U Can't Touch This”-- all before a group of somewhat startled shoppers.

The clip, Hammer Pants Dance, has generated over 900,000 views on YouTube in the past week, as well as another 200,000 or so on both MSN and Break.com. A&E plans to create a similar public dancing spectacle at New York’s Grand Central station as part of its Hammertime promotional push.

As part of that push, the network has rolled out Twittertime, a collection of MC Hammer’s Twitter entries, and watchhammertime.com, where fans can sign up to receive text messages and phone calls from the rapper, who once famously claimed that “I’m dope on the floor and magic on the mic.”

Hammertime premieres on A&E on June 14 at 10 p.m. EST.

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