One of the niftiest features of Alan Moore's brilliant Watchmen comic was its fully realized fictional world: every aspect of the near-future alternate-reality America was fleshed out, from the names of the newspapers to the look of the pop fashion trends of the moment to the fast food joints and retail stores. Even the televisions were populated by cleverly thought-out commercials, many of them for products manufactured by Veidt Enterprises, the monolithic corporate giant run by ex-superhero Ozymandias.
Director Zack Snyder is determined to recreate this depth of field as much as possible, but he can't be bothered to actually make the commercials himself, since he is busy filming the movie and blogging endlessly about filming the movie. So he's making you do it! Or, more specifically, YouTube. Snyder is running a contest on the video-hosting site, inviting fans to create their own Veidt Enterprises commercials. If yours gets picked, you'll get thousands of dollars from the makers of this hugely expensive Hollywood blockbuster film!
Ha ha, no, just kidding. But you do have a chance to get your commercial featured in the movie -- for free! It's not exploitation if you enjoy it! Me, I'm picturing an ad for Veidt's "Nostalgia" cologne featuring an 80-year-old Wilford Brimley muttering, "You can smell like it's 1956 again."
As an aside, does anybody think that Zack Snyder looks absolutely terrible? I mean, I know he's under a lot of pressure, making a movie adaptation of a hugely well-respected property with geek cred aplenty, but the poor guy looks like he's aged a dozen and a half years since he wrapped 300.