TORONTO, ON — June 2026 — Commuters and tourists along Toronto’s waterfront were met with an unexpected sight this weekend: a massive stranded vessel in the middle of Lake Ontario and Supergirl swooping in to save it.
In a large-scale promotional stunt for the upcoming theatrical release of Supergirl (in theatres June 26), Warner Bros. Pictures Canada partnered with independent creative agency 23rd St. Diner to stage a real-world rescue in Toronto Harbour. The activation saw Supergirl and her furry friend, Krypto, tow a disabled 125-foot vessel – weighing over one million pounds – safely to shore.
Designed to blur the line between fiction and reality, the spectacle unfolded from June 19–21, drawing crowds along the waterfront while prompting widespread social sharing
and media attention. While the live audience witnessed the moment firsthand, the larger objective extended far beyond the shoreline.
“This wasn’t just a stunt, it was built as a media moment,” said Mike De Candido, Partner at 23rd St. Diner. “Great superhero stories give people something to look up to,
literally and figuratively. We wanted to create something that made people look, question, capture, and share. In a world where anything can be faked, this was something that we made for real, something that felt real enough to make people ask, ‘Did that actually just happen?’”
The scale of the execution was intentional. With Toronto hosting a surge of global attention and foot traffic tied to FIFA events, the campaign needed to compete in one of
the most crowded attention environments of the summer.
“If you’re going to earn attention at a moment like this, you can’t go small,” added De Candido. “We had to create something big enough to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with everything else happening in the city.”
The Toronto Harbour setting was selected for its high visibility, heavy foot traffic, and access to large vessels, enabling a spectacle that matched the larger-than-life nature of
the character.
The campaign is part of a broader effort to generate awareness and conversation ahead of the film’s release, with success measured across live reach, social engagement,
earned media, and ticket interest.
The activation was developed by 23rd St. Diner, with production support from WXM, creator programming from Your Brand Integrated Marketing Communications, and public relations managed by Allied Integrated Marketing.
Supergirl opens in theatres nationwide on June 26.
