Gawker: defamer, viral marketing

Geek Trailer Stampede Threatens World's Interest in Seeing 'The Dark Knight'

STV — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:00:00 EDT

The latest oppressive trends in viral marketing received a skeptical close-up this week in The Hollywood Reporter, but for sheer word-of-mouth fanboy horror, look no further than Tuesday's video chronicle of the Dark Knight "scavenger hunt"/wild geek goose chase through Hollywood. MTV sent an intern to do its dirty work, which included — we shit you not — "a FedEx from the Joker himself," counting the number of fountains in the courtyard at the Hollywood & Highland Mall, and a half-dozen more eggheaded stunts that dead ended with Warner Bros. giving the hundreds of spectators three minutes to stampede to the multiplex — just to get a three-day jump on watching a trailer.

While we wouldn't pretend we're too cool to anticipate The Dark Knight, our old-fashioned theatergoing sensibilities defy our will to get this exercised about a commercial. Of course, if and/or when David Mamet finally gets off the couch and takes his cremated dog for a walk in sly support of his forthcoming Redbelt, we'll be the first ones there with our own cameras. We know, we know — we're such snobs.

Ramsey the Intern Videoblogs 'Dark Knight' Viral Event [MTV]

Innocent Trees Are the Latest Victims in Insidious Anti-'Sarah Marshall' Campaign

STV — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:00:00 EDT

While we appreciate the earnest viral efforts of studio marketers on behalf of Cloverfield, The Dark Knight and even half-assed fare like Quarantine, there's a strangely revolting quality to the derisive, almost misogynist analog throwback accompanying the new Apatow Assembly Line comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall. So much so that a mad bomber is fighting off those Universal billboards and bus placards with a guerilla campaign that we can't determine is the real deal or just some second wave of the studio's low-concept offensive. Help us decide after the jump.

Jaded as we can be, the actual human in us does bristle a wee bit at the tasteful YES YOU LOOK FAT IN THOSE JEANS SARAH MARSHALL and I HATE YOU SARAH MARSHALL plugs scrawled all over our nation's metropolitan hubs. We'd love to think the anonymous San Francisco reactions picked up Tuesday by Hollywood Elsewhere are simply meta-culture critiques of media saturation and the General Absurdity of It All. Still, we wouldn't put it past the postmodern jokers at Uni to have stripped a batch of interns of their ID's, put $50 cash in their pockets and quietly sent them out like Watergate plumbers to fight their nasty word-of-mouth against trees, street lamps and anything else tape will stick to. Either way, we're guessing the real Sarah Marshalls of the world are considering viral marketing overall the stupidest idea ever right about now.

Bay Area 'Sarah' Backlash? [Hollywood Elsewhere]

Batman Nemesis Doubles Average Fanboy Correspondence

STV — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 18:47:00 EST

In a savvy bit of viral marketing set to reclaim Warner Bros.' Dark Knight campaign from the near-disaster of votive-and-flower-ready Why So Serious? multiplex displays, Batman fans are encouraged to stopwhatthey'redoingRIGHTNOW and allay their post-Ledger apprehensions at IBelieveinHarveyDent.com. There, Gotham City district attorney Harvey Dent — a/k/a eventual Caped Crusader nemesis Two Face — exhorts visitors to join his campaign to "join the fight for Gotham."

All it takes is an e-mail address, to which an actual computer program pretending to be Dent will respond immediately:

Citizens of Gotham! The future of our city rests in your hands!
Alone, we are helpless against the thugs and killers menacing our city.

Together, we have the power to take back Gotham.

In just a few days, you'll find out how.

The site takes phone numbers, too, entitling Dent to a spot alongside Mom, the collections henchman and the occasional misdialer in the Official Fanboy Family Plan. We'll turn our ringers up — God forbid we miss that call.

I Believe in Harvey Dent [Warner Bros. via Cinematical]

We realize this is just a crass attempt at...

Seth — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 16:30:01 EDT

We realize this is just a crass attempt at getting some viral marketing going for Delirious by having its star Gina Gershon show up for an interview that turns out to be a porn set, but we felt her impressive commitment to flipping the bird deserves some special recognition. [YouTube]