June 09, 2004
A Brief History of the "Fake Movie Website" Marketing Tactic
With all of the press attention fake movie websites are getting these days, I thought it would be interesting to build a timeline of all of those that I could find. This timeline includes both "hoax" style sites (sites mimicking the look and feel of a real company/institution) and fake fan sites.
1998 -- The Blair Witch Project. The one that started the sub-genre and ignited the interest in internet marketing for films. Released by Artisan Entertainment, the film went on to gross $140,539,099 domestically.
1999 -- The Fanatic's Guide to the Blair Witch -- A fan site rumored to have been started by friends of the film’s producers to manufacture buzz. Salon did an article on this.
January 2000 -- Finemann Films -- A fake film company website appeared in tandem with a major national print buy promoting the 30th anniversary of the company. The site was actually a promotional vehicle for the Jerry Stiller film 'The Independent.' Released by Arrow Films, the film grossed $238,000 domestically.
March 2000 -- Firstpiece.com -- A fan site rumored to be fake. Creation was concurrent with the publicity ramp-up of 'American Pie.' The film was released by Universal Pictures, and went on to gross $101,800,900 domestically.
June 2000 -- Watch Us Dorm -- A fake "webcam voyeur site" used to promote an indie horror film. The film never secured theatrical distribution.
April 2001 -- Bangalore World University -- One of many fake sites that sprang up to build buzz and backstory for the film 'A.I. - Artificial Intelligence.' Released by Warner Brothers, the film grossed $78,616,689 domestically.
May 2001 -- "National Blonde Day" -- A fake association site used to promote the film 'Legally Blonde.' It was updated last year to promote the sequel as well. Released by MGM, the film went on to gross $96,520,674 domestically.
October 2003 -- Lacuna, Inc. -- A fake medical facility that purports to erase unpleasant memories. Created to promote the film 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.' Released by Focus Features, the film has grossed $33,560,352 domestically so far.
January 2004 -- Kingdom Hospital of Maine -- A fake hospital website to promote the TV miniseries "Kingdom Hospital." -- The ABC show has recently fared poorly in the ratings, and will be cancelled after the remaining four episodes air this July.
February 2004 -- The Godsend Institute -- another fake medical facility, this time purporting to be able to "clone lost loved ones." Used to promote the film 'Godsend.' Released by Lions Gate Films, the movie has grossed $14,262,583 domestically so far.
February 2004 -- Katz, Cohen & Phelps -- a fake law firm site used to promote the film 'Laws of Attraction.' Released by New Line, the film has grossed $17,755,992 to date.
April 2004 -- I Robot Now, Inc. -- a fake technology company purporting to sell robots. Created to promote the upcoming release of 'I, Robot.' The film will be released by 20th Century Fox, and will be in theaters July 16th, 2004.
May 2004 -- "Eric Bruderman Webpage." Purports to be a "secret" site where war footage is leaked. Probably created to promote the release of the film 'September Tapes,' which is scheduled for release by First Look Pictures this fall.
Some of these may take a while to load since I pulled the links from archive.org.
This list is by no means complete -- especially in the timeframe between late 2001 - late 2002. if you have a site you know of or have a link to, let me know so I can add it...
Comments
Ooo, that's a good challenge. I know I can dig up a few more for your list. Of course the first one that comes to mind is the "universe" my film "Nothing So Strange" ... the initial sites (www.citizensfortruth.org and www.billgatesisdead.com) generated a lot of press in 2000 before our Slamdance debut in 2001 ("official" movie site at www.nothingsostrange.com).
Are you interested in "fake movie sites" that didn't particularly succeed at appearing fake? I can think of a few of those.
And you should probably add the viral web campaign for Speilberg's A.I. to that list as well (I'll dig up some URLs for you.)
Brian
At the risk of self-promotion (on a marketing blog? ha!), I'll add the completely unauthorized campaign I ran in June 2002 for Minority Report. My team put together a set of four sites that evolved over five weeks to tell a story about a company called "Exocog" that was exploiting precogs for its own purposes. We had no studio affiliation of any sort, but we achieved our goal of learning a huge amount about how these things work, what it takes to do them, and where they do and don't work. Interested people will find a report on this at http://www.miramontes.com/portfolio/exocog , which will provide some context for the game sites:
http://www.exocog.com
http://blog.personalfusion.com/sarahblogger
http://www.precogstudies.org
http://www.wethefuture.com
Jim Miller
jmiller@miramontes.com
What about the "A.I." campaign?
Chris
Brian's original post had a link to the archived version of Bangalore World University, which was one of them. There is also a more accessible archive of all the AI sites (as of the end of the game, anyway) at www.cloudmakers.org.
Jim