Reality still eating itself.
May 26, 2010 6:08 AM Subscribe
Nokia's new ARG ad campaign seems to be co-opting activism for marketing. Written by Tim Kring of Heroes infamy. There's a good summary here. Strangely they managed to troll The Pirate Bay into a response and the bassist from Suede is doing the blog!
Now, call me old fashioned but tagging onto the fear created by a very real and serious incident, just for the purposes of enhancing your POS viral campaign, is an absolute disgrace in my view.
As they say on the internet: 'This'.
posted by robself at 6:25 AM on May 26, 2010 [3 favorites]
As they say on the internet: 'This'.
posted by robself at 6:25 AM on May 26, 2010 [3 favorites]
Now, call me old fashioned but tagging onto the fear created by a very real and serious incident, just for the purposes of enhancing your POS viral campaign, is an absolute disgrace in my viewworking.
posted by DU at 6:36 AM on May 26, 2010
posted by DU at 6:36 AM on May 26, 2010
Less compelling than Heroes, and that's saying a lot.
posted by Damn That Television at 6:41 AM on May 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Damn That Television at 6:41 AM on May 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
You wash your mouth out! Heroes was awesome, all 1 seasons of it, which is all that exists.
posted by Artw at 6:42 AM on May 26, 2010 [14 favorites]
posted by Artw at 6:42 AM on May 26, 2010 [14 favorites]
Keep telling yourself that, Artw. You just keep telling yourself that. As someone who was forced to suffer through later seasons, I heartily disagree. By the end of that trainwreck, Zachary Quinto's eyebrows were doing more acting than the rest of the cast put together.
posted by bitter-girl.com at 6:47 AM on May 26, 2010
posted by bitter-girl.com at 6:47 AM on May 26, 2010
Wouldn't it be easier to advertise a product the Golden Palace way and just pay a few college kids a case of beer to run up and down a street with their shirts off?
posted by robocop is bleeding at 6:54 AM on May 26, 2010
posted by robocop is bleeding at 6:54 AM on May 26, 2010
Now I'm so cynical I think everything is viral marketing. Is BP coming out with a new type of gas or something?
posted by fuq at 6:59 AM on May 26, 2010
posted by fuq at 6:59 AM on May 26, 2010
My god, they've created some kind of alternate reality game mixed with astroturfing. Those fiends. And stop me if I'm wrong but isn't everything the guy mentioned in the video already legal in the UK? Datamining unusual exceptions in location of interesting persons via base stations, basically using mobile phones instead of the ANPR and feeding it into the same databases.
But more interestingly my old flatmate used to work with the bassplayer from Suede. On first day flatmate recognised him immediately having been an obsessive Suede fan in his youth yet the entire time they worked together he never mentioned it to said bassplayer.
posted by Damienmce at 7:45 AM on May 26, 2010
But more interestingly my old flatmate used to work with the bassplayer from Suede. On first day flatmate recognised him immediately having been an obsessive Suede fan in his youth yet the entire time they worked together he never mentioned it to said bassplayer.
posted by Damienmce at 7:45 AM on May 26, 2010
In fairness to Nokia, a few commenters on Youtube seemed to think it was real, but they could just be plants. Or maybe they’re just idiots, I don’t know.
Just idiots. You don't need to "plant" someone to make stupid comments on Youtube, it happens all by itself.
posted by three blind mice at 8:09 AM on May 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
Just idiots. You don't need to "plant" someone to make stupid comments on Youtube, it happens all by itself.
posted by three blind mice at 8:09 AM on May 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
Oh, they're plants all right. By which I mean: I'm pretty sure most of the people commenting on Youtube are assorted varieties of Ficus.
posted by koeselitz at 8:24 AM on May 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by koeselitz at 8:24 AM on May 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
If this is an Alternate Reality Game, what's the game? This just looks like Alt.Reality marketing. Maybe the game is to see who can keep a straight face the longest. The Pirate Bay reply was laughing at the takedown request, or whatever that was, so they lose this round.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:26 AM on May 26, 2010
posted by filthy light thief at 8:26 AM on May 26, 2010
Who cares if Nokia runs a schizophrenic but invisible ad campaign? We care lots that the company has been acting schizophrenic about their Maemo/MeeGo development however.
Nokia has been the dominant mobile phone marker across basically all levels forever, but their Symbian platform is aging and Android is taking away some high end market share. Just fyi, the iPhone and BlackBerry aren't so big outside the U.S., afaik they've mostly stolen market share from Windows Mobile.
Maemo was supposed to eventually replace Symbian on the very high end phones, but they've dragged their feet, presumably due to too many old Symbian guys calling the shots behind the scenes. So they've expected too much form the open source community, meaning the N900 isn't quite 'ready' as a phone. I guess they've had quality control issues with the N97 too, but those got fixed.
posted by jeffburdges at 8:37 AM on May 26, 2010
Nokia has been the dominant mobile phone marker across basically all levels forever, but their Symbian platform is aging and Android is taking away some high end market share. Just fyi, the iPhone and BlackBerry aren't so big outside the U.S., afaik they've mostly stolen market share from Windows Mobile.
Maemo was supposed to eventually replace Symbian on the very high end phones, but they've dragged their feet, presumably due to too many old Symbian guys calling the shots behind the scenes. So they've expected too much form the open source community, meaning the N900 isn't quite 'ready' as a phone. I guess they've had quality control issues with the N97 too, but those got fixed.
posted by jeffburdges at 8:37 AM on May 26, 2010
Wow those new Nokia phones look interesting. I'm going to have to check them out.
posted by Bonzai at 8:41 AM on May 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Bonzai at 8:41 AM on May 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
!!! Mat Osman from Suede? in an ARG? made by help by Tim Kring? What's going on?
posted by suedehead at 8:58 AM on May 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by suedehead at 8:58 AM on May 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
The angry blogger guy thinks Joss Stone is American.
Destroy him, my robots.
posted by circular at 10:19 AM on May 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
Destroy him, my robots.
posted by circular at 10:19 AM on May 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
I just looked up Zachary Quinto on Wikipedia after reading bitter-girl's comment. And I said, "Oh, the guy who looks like mathowie!" And for about two seconds, I seriously wondered why Wikipedia doesn't mention that about him.
posted by roll truck roll at 10:24 AM on May 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by roll truck roll at 10:24 AM on May 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
An ad campaign sponsored by a major corporation that hoaxes the Pirate Bay. Huh. Is this what legitimacy is supposed to be like?
posted by Kevin Street at 11:05 AM on May 26, 2010
posted by Kevin Street at 11:05 AM on May 26, 2010
The angry blogger guy thinks Joss Stone is American.
To be fair, Joss Stone thinks Joss Stone is American.
posted by Electric Dragon at 11:06 AM on May 26, 2010 [2 favorites]
To be fair, Joss Stone thinks Joss Stone is American.
posted by Electric Dragon at 11:06 AM on May 26, 2010 [2 favorites]
Now, call me old fashioned but tagging onto the fear created by a very real and serious incident, just for the purposes of enhancing your POS viral campaign, is an absolute disgrace in my view.
True! True! That should only be put to the purposes of propping up your political party!
posted by Ogre Lawless at 11:18 AM on May 26, 2010
True! True! That should only be put to the purposes of propping up your political party!
posted by Ogre Lawless at 11:18 AM on May 26, 2010
Okay, so I read their blog and think I understand it a bit better now. Tim Kring and the conspiracyforgood people want to create an online community or movement, mostly London based, that brings people together to do actual good things... but the hook that brings in the masses and gets them to join up is a fictional game, sponsored by Nokia? Seems like the message is irreversibly tainted by the medium here. And what happens when members get tired of the game and leave? Do they think it will be self sustaining once the membership reaches a critical mass?
posted by Kevin Street at 11:47 AM on May 26, 2010
posted by Kevin Street at 11:47 AM on May 26, 2010
Trolling the pirate bay is kind of funny.
posted by delmoi at 2:10 PM on May 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by delmoi at 2:10 PM on May 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
Isn't "the pirate fjord" more appropriate if your so close to Norway?
posted by jeffburdges at 6:06 PM on May 26, 2010
posted by jeffburdges at 6:06 PM on May 26, 2010
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posted by debord at 6:11 AM on May 26, 2010