Marshall and the Movies

Viral websites.  Aren’t they fascinating?

It was really Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” that revolutionized their use in a movie’s advertising campaign.  I remember there was a site for just about everything in Gotham – the newspaper, the bank, the police, even the pizzeria.

Sure enough, “District 9” carved out a nice audience for itself using a similar campaign the next summer with the “Humans Only” signs on bathrooms and benches and such.  And Nolan’s own “Inception” is doing the same now.

I slap myself for not getting more involved with “The Dark Knight” viral sites.  They really did reward the people who stuck with them.  I remembered hearing that the people who put their names in had been sent free advanced screening passes to see the movie in IMAX.  Of course, only then did I scour the websites looking for a way to get my hands on the passes.  It was to no avail; I even called the number on the pizza site.

And for the record, my self-imposed moratorium on intake of “Inception” has kept me from joining their viral site.