The Hollywood Reporter has learned that there’s something called “viral marketing,” which has something to do with putting a bunch of cyberweb sites up on the World Wide Netting and ensnaring geeks who have nothing better to do than click their mice-pads all day, collecting clues from the Joker that may somehow lead them to the jackpot prize of getting to watch a movie trailer two hours before everyone else.
In a cranky piece called “Summer viral camp: Feeling pinpricked yet?”, Andrew Wallenstein dissects the intricate yet ultimately nonsensical web campaigns for such blockbusters-in-waiting as The Dark Knight and Hancock. “Gone are the days when marketing a movie online involved simply buying a URL like DarkKnight.com and uploading a trailer. Warner Bros. has launched more than 30 Web sites during the past year in support of the latest in the Batman franchise, a trail of virtual bread crumbs intended to sate fans until the July 18 release.”
The trail doesn’t always end in cyberspace, however; in the case of The Dark Knight, it extends into a strange realm known as the real world.
Read More...