Fresh, Hot Wastes of Time

Here’s an article I wrote for ARGN about a new possible viral campaign:

The white-hot spark of a YouTube user named LonelyGirl15 has set the dry timber of the summer Internet community ablaze. Ostensibly the video blog of a teenaged American girl named Bree, the 23 videos posted so far have chronicled a budding romance with a boy named Daniel, but there’s a twist: Bree’s family is very religious, she is home-schooled, and she has pledged a “purity bond” with her father. Even stranger is the fact that Bree’s religion is never named, and in fact on various comments on YouTube she has said that it is not mainstream – “We’re not Christian or Buddhist or Hindu or anything like that.” There’s also a mysterious picture of famous occultist Aleister Crowley on Bree’s bedroom wall, above a candelabra which she’s vehement that Daniel not light. And wait – that Crowley picture is new – it used to be something else (could that possibly bear a resemblance to Baphomet?) A dark twist, indeed.

Buzz has it that the videos are too pat, too scripted, and too professional looking to be anything but some sort of viral campaign. Indeed, the clues are there. Bree initially gained an audience by making engaging and humorous videos featuring popular YouTube users. She’s very cagey about revealing any personally revealing information about herself, often completely dodging uncomfortable questions. Perhaps more telling is the fact that a vanity website under her name was registered on May 12 – almost two weeks before she showed up on YouTube. Those following the saga wonder how she knew she would become an Internet sensation before posting a video (her excuse: Daniel did it to tease her).

Even more interesting than the videos themselves has been the reaction around the Internet. “Is she or isn’t she?” is a common refrain, not to mention a (very civilized, of course) small rebellion on Wikipedia about the deletion of the LonelyGirl15 article. Fingers are pointing in all directions as to who might be the mastermind. Two comments on Metafilter implicate Haxan Films. Mike Monello from Haxan originally thought it could have been Sean Stewart and Jordan Weisman promoting Cathy’s Book. Another Metafilter comment questions whether Brian Clark from GMD Studios could be involved. Indeed, Clark looked like ripe pickings, especially given his interview with ARGN where he said:

What new technology or ideas would you like to include in future ARGs?
Video community. I’m starting to think that discussion boards are an interesting way to do community but not the penultimate. I’m really looking forward to doing an ARG project where the basis of player community might be more immediate or visual, auditory. Look at what people are starting to do with video blogging. I start to wonder if there are ways for the community of players to communicate with each other beyond just the written word.

Others suspected Brian Flemming, who has been taking a keen interest in the ongoing saga. Indeed, when reached for comment on the possible Clark/Flemming connection, Brian Clark responded, “One should be careful in taking a denial from Brian Flemming at face value. Never have I met a more accomplished or fearless reality hacker: there’s no doubt the government has files somewhere with both our names and notes like ‘didn’t intend to crash Asian stock market’ because of the reality hacking in ‘Nothing So Strange’.” However, Flemming has since issued an unequivocal denial of his involvement, and Brian Clark says he doesn’t know who the puppetmaster might be.

So the question remains: is she or isn’t she? Certainly, the Internet is no stranger to crying “Fake!” on honest-to-goodness real people, but the clues stacking up in favor of Lonelygirl15 being the front for a viral campaign are nothing to sneeze at. If this is, indeed, a marketing campaign, it is reminiscent of the Who is Benjamin Stove? ARG, in which the sponsor wasn’t revealed for months. Either way, Lonelygirl15 has made some serious ripples in cyberspace and gotten people talking about everything from videoblogs to viral marketing to how Wikipedia should be run.

Join the discussion at Unfiction.com.

Mystery Billboards Garner Buzz
By BILL WEIR and MILEKA LINCOLN

July 19, 2006 — It’s tough to get people to notice billboards in New York and Los Angeles, but giant signs of what looks like a scorned woman have attracted attention.

“Hi Steven, Do I have your attention now?” the sign reads, and then goes on to call Steven immoral and unfaithful. The open letter ends with a “P.S. I paid for this from our joint bank account.”

Los Angelinos are captivated.

“There’s no insinuation that it has to do with any brand, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s not for real. I mean, we’re in L.A.,” one woman said, looking back at the billboard over her shoulder.

Her friend agreed. “This has got to be a publicity stunt, it’s just not 100 percent believable as a personal ad.”

On Ryan Seacrest’s radio show on 102.7 KIIS FM Los Angeles, people called in to discuss the billboards.

One skeptical caller to Seacrest’s show said she didn’t believe the message was truly part of a lover’s quarrel. She said she’d seen one of the billboards in another location. “I saw one yesterday over on Englewood and Washington,” she said.

“Let’s then deduce that there was no individual woman who was cheated on here, that this is obviously an ad campaign,” Seacrest replied. “That ad agency is having the greatest day of their life.”

This billboard is part of a mystery ad campaign for a new cable TV show. It’s part of a larger trend of ads that don’t look like ads at all. Another example of the trend is the advertising campaign run by Secret deodorant, which looks as if people are posting their deepest secrets in Times Square.

“The key word — and this is what every advertiser is looking for — buzz,” said Jerry Della Femina, chairman and CEO of Della Femina, Rothschild, Jeary Partners advertising agency in New York. “They want buzz.”

This buzz has a more technical name: viral advertising, so dubbed because the ads spread from one person to another by people talking about them and, in the case of online ads, e-mailing them to friends.

Ad agencies large and small have creative teams dedicated to the viral concept, because these ads are cheaper to produce and because more young consumers are likely to pay attention. Ground zero of viral advertising is the video sharing Web site YouTube.com, which has more daily viewers than MTV.

“It’s so deliciously sneaky,” Della Femina said. “Most people say advertising doesn’t affect me. Well, it does. It does and it works.”

But the heavy impact of viral marketing carries a risk. A video clip of a Middle East terrorist blowing himself up in a Volkswagen drew millions of online hits. Even though Volkswagen had nothing to do with the clip, the company apologized after a storm of bad publicity.

Simply commenting on these ads in the media boosts their advertising power.

“The fact that you’re now talking about viral advertising means that the virtual advertisers have won,” Della Femina said.

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Man cheats on woman with her best friend; woman takes revenge by hiring billboards across the country. The writing and storyline are a bit contrived, although I guess it’s vaguely possible it could be real. I’m voting viral. Interesting though – I like it.

McDonalds has put up a really cool sundial billboard.

Since it’s launched and the marketing has begin, I can mention that I was very lucky to be involved with the Hedge Games campaign for Dreamworks and HP, marketing the movie Over the Hedge. I vetted the puzzles being used in the contest (and you might have heard of the guy who wrote the puzzles!). It was a blast.

Go play and hurt your brain.

Is it possible to distill the definition of Alternate Reality Gaming into one sentence?

Usually when someone asks me what an ARG is, I’ll say, “It’s like a murder mystery dinner theater that takes place over weeks rather than hours, and has components on the internet and in real life.”

There’s all sorts of meta-talk in the community right now about defining ARGs, and whether that should even be done. But for those who have family and friends asking them what they do with their time, it would be nice to have a simple, brief reply upon which you can elaborate more later. Does anyone else have an answer that they use?

ETA: Here’s a thread I started on Unfiction about this.

Jamesi has done a beautiful job reworking the ARGN archives. If you’re interested in seeing my articles, you can read them here.

A contact to ARGN earlier today netted me a phone call from a company who’s looking to put together a game. If I can manage to work it out, they asked if I could be a point-of-contact for the whole thing.

What a nice thing to happen on a Monday evening.