Discovery Channel Building with Shark

Discovery Channel is employing some toothy guerilla tactics to market this year's Shark Week. For starters, Discovery Communications just hoisted a 446-foot-long inflatable great white shark to the top of its downtown Silver Spring headquarters.

The shark marks the return of the Discovery Channel's popular Shark Week series, the 19th year Discovery has aired a weeklong marathon of shark-related shows.

Discovery says this year's Shark Week marathon, which airs July 30 through Aug. 4 with daily premieres at 9 p.m. Eastern, includes seven new shark-focused specials. Last year, about 20.6 million people watched Shark Week, cable TV's longest-running programming event.

As for that gigantic shark in Silver Spring: Discovery says it took 6.65 miles of fabric to create the inflatable fish and 36.7 miles of thread to sew him together. And if it were real, the shark would weight about 84,000 pounds.