• by Larissa Faw , November 7, 2017

Graduate Hotels is traveling to college football games in a recreated model of the Mutt Cutts van from the 1994 Jim Carrey movie "Dumb and Dumber" to raise awareness for the boutique hotel chain.

At each pit-stop, Graduate Hotels hosts a pop-up tailgate operated out of the dog-like Mutt Cutts van, which has been outfitted with Yeti coolers, a roll-out grill, music and corn hole boards. Food and beverages are available for purchase.

Created in partnership with experiential agency OutCold, this mobile tailgate commenced in Ann Arbor, Mich., and includes stops at Lincoln, Neb.; Madison, Wisc.; Oxford, Miss., and Athens, Ga.

Graduate is supporting the tour across its various social media accounts and via its individual properties as well as encouraging others to use the #graduatemuttcutts hashtag.

The concept's inspiration was drawn in part from the client’s Graduate Providence Hotel in Rhode Island, which served as the filming location for much of "Dumb & Dumber." As a longtime fan, Larkin MacDonald, asset manager, Graduate Hotels, believed the movie "evokes a nostalgia and vibrant spirt" that is very similar to the feeling people get walking into its hotels. "At the end of the day, this is all about having fun, celebrating a moment in culture and not taking ourselves too seriously," he says. 

"And it won’t be going away at the end of football season," says MacDonald. "We will continue to have the van make stops at hotels across our portfolio."