October 18, 2009

Idiots think the world is ending because of a movie promo

According to the The Institute for Human Continuity ( the IHC to those in the know) a "mysterious celestial body will enter Earth's orbit in 2012 with disastrous consequences". The purpose of the IHC is to ensure that after this disaster strikes, the earth will continue to to survive and thrive in the post apocalyptic era. The IHC is sponsoring elections for the leader of the post 2012 world. Additionally, the IHC website features a "survival lottery" where people can register to recolonize the earth after the Big One happens.

...And idiots everywhere are buying into this elaborate hoax put on by Sony to promote the new movie "2012". Its gotten so bad that Nasa has had to issue a statement to the thousands who have been calling in to ask what the emergency procedure is in the event another planet collides with earth.

Critics of this form of advertising say that it is unethical to lead people on by the hoax, but if your dumb enough to believe a random web site's outrageous claims you deserve to think that everyone and thing you've ever loved is going to be obliterated in the blink of an eye. To harsh? Yeah...maybe. Where do you get the number for NASA anyway? I've got a few questions of my own.

7 comments:

  1. Critics of this form of advertising have to realize that what the role and purpose of advertising and marketing is. The hoax idea for the movie is just a brilliant idea to get people excited to see the movie and not unethical.

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  2. This reminds me of the people who thought that aliens were in LA when they saw the "For Humans Only" signs, a promotion for District 9. I think this type of film promotion is genius. I saw the add for 2012 and I thought that it was really cool. Its this indirect form of advertising that is making these marketing campaigns sucessful and Sony is especially good at it. However, no amount of marketing will make the movie 2012 good.

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  3. I feel bad for the Mayans in South America who are getting bombarded with questions about "THE END". This all started thanks to the YouTube videos. People should know better by now that everything you see, hear or read on the internet is not necessarily true.

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  4. Beware of fake sites reviewing labtops. Check this one out http://www.laptopmag.com. Great independent reviews. Search student notebooks. Mac's are probably the best but the most expensive.

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  5. This is indeed ridiculous, but it definitely does prove the point that the marketing for "2012" was first and foremost effective in getting attention. Then maybe secondly, that it was good enough to fool some (dimwitted) people, and in so doing, garner even more media attention and publicity for the film's release. Colleen has a fantastic point here in saying that the marketing for this past summer's extraterrestrial B.O. success "District 9" was similar in some regards. Sony Pictures (which also released "2012") focused on an ad campaign that was made to imitate what could be real-life warnings. The marketing team also set up an interactive website for MNU-- the organization in "District 9" that dealt with the alien habitants in South Africa.

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  6. This says a lot about the human psyche. It's not that we're idiots, but something is allowing us to easily buy into something that is farfetched. It's the same with the War of the Worlds broadcast back in the 1930s. Just reading about it, it sounds idiotic that people would actually accept a radio announcement that aliens had invaded.

    But if you consider the time it was happening, right during WWII, maybe it didn't seem so farfetched. Their willingness to believe the broadcast highlighted how fearful people were. Today, there are tons of things to be afraid of. With so much bad new — failing economy, nuclear weapons, global warming — it's almost hard to believe that the end of the world isn't here. Though I knew it was promotion for a movie, I can see why somebody who didn't know COULD find it legitimate. It was a truly elaborate, professional presentation. That makes me wonder how responsible this campaign was - although I must say it was clever.

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  7. Damn, I actually saw a flyer advertising an event about this in my building. "2012: Will the world really end?" I was so tempted to deface it simply with a massive "NO. You idiots." People like to think we've come really far since War of the Worlds, but apparently not.

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