With less than a handful of days until the launch of the new Game of Thrones season anticipation is building, especially in New Zealand where fans were challenged to bring down a seven meter statue of the hateful King Joffrey.

A rope, which is connected to a winch, has been strung around the giant statue’s neck and with every tweet using the hashtag #bringdowntheking it comes closer to toppling over.

The giant statue was erected in Auckland’s Aotea Square by DDB New Zealand and production company Finch to promote the SKY New Zealand’s broadcast of the new season on its SoHo channel.

Fans will be able to watch the campaign progress via bringdowntheking.com and watch as the evil boy-king eventually falls via the webcame live stream.

Travis Dunbar, SKY’s director of programming, said: “Game of Thrones is a worldwide phenomenon and King Joffrey is quite possibly the most hated fictional television character of all time. It’s exciting to give fans an opportunity they are dying for; to assist in the demise of the King of the Iron Throne.”

“First we saw a giant 40-foot-long dragon skull wash up on a beach in Dorset, England* and now it’s New Zealand’s turn to spark the fury,” Dunbar adds. The Dragon Skull stunt was used to promote the launch of Game of Thrones season three on British streaming service Blinkbox.

Shane Bradnick, DDB Executive Creative Director, said: “it’s great to be working with clients that want to create ideas that bring the fictional, digital and real world’s together. Let’s bring the bastard down!”

CREDITS: Client:  SKY Television Marketing Director:  Mike Watson Product Marketing Manager:  Amber Cooke Agency:  DDB Group New Zealand Executive Creative Director:  Shane Bradnick Creative Director:  Chris Schofield Digital Creative Director: Haydn Kerr Art Director:  Adam Thompson Copywriter:  Rory McKechnie  Senior Account Director:  James Blair Account Manager: Georgia Newton Agency Producer:  Tania Jeram Executive Producer:  Judy Thompson Digital Business Director: Paul Pritchard Digital Executive Producer: Liz Knox Lead Digital Designer: Sam Schrey  Senior Technologist: Cameron Crosby  PR: Mango Communications: Senior Account Director: Sean Brown: Senior Account Manager: Eleisha Balmer Film Company (production): Finch Executive Producer: Rob Galluzzo TV Producer: Camilla Dehnert Camera Operator: Sam Britten Production Designer: Bruce Everard Prop maker: Phil Gregory Construction Manager Grant Bailey CNC Machining: Styrotech Limited 3D character modeling : Michael Ulloa Engineer: Nick Barnfield  Live Streaming: Slip Stream Managing Director: Aaron Crabb