Random Blogthings

Worst 3DS commercial ever? I think so.

If nothing else, the marketing for Rise of Nightmares is brilliant. Who knew Granny was so foul mouthed?

As many of you are aware, for the past few months, 42 Entertainment has been conducting an ARG, entitled The Human Preservation Project. Consisting of a series of websites, videos, cryptic newspaper advertising, and a supposed personality assessment, many believed it to be marketing for a video game, or an upcoming movie. I can now report that neither of those assumptions are true. Having received another mysterious looking package in the mail from the game today, I now know who is sponsoring this multimedia mystery… 

That’s right - all of this; the scavenger hunt, the mysterious black envelopes, the Bonnaroo stunt, everything(!) is a brilliantly executed marketing campaign for a new flavor of Wrigley’s 5 Gum. I can’t say I’m exactly surprised, given the amount of sensory references in the various websites - but I’m impressed at how deep Wrigley’s went with this ARG before the inevitable big reveal. Spanning no less than 4 websites, and featuring lost’s Terry O’Quinn, The Human Preservation Project was undoubtedly NOT cheap.

Now that the veil has been lifted, the question remains: does it end here? Is today’s mailing the end of a four month marketing campaign, or is this simply the next phase in an ongoing ARG?

UPDATE: To answer my own question, today’s mailing isn’t the end, not by a long shot. Opening the included specially marked package of gum revealed the following - with a single use code that I’ve since removed, for the Survival Code website.

Looks like it’s just getting started!

Maybe I’m jumping the gun here, but being a child of the 80s, I can’t help but get a chuckle out of this commercial. No, not because it’s got a bunch of whiny kids complaining about the “grown up” pizzas they were offered - it’s because a certain pop culture icon makes a surprise appearance near the end.

(Did you catch it?)

Looks like someone at Minute Maid had a little fun with their package design. One smiley faced package of juice boxes could be written off as a crazy random happenstance, but three? I think not.