Thursday, January 31, 2008

Hi, my name is Erin, and I am a LOST fanatic.

srsly.

I was all over the movie Cloverfield upon hearing that it was created by the brilliant J.J Abrams, who is also the creator of my all-time favorite TV show, LOST.

I was completely sucked into the mysterious viral marketing campaign surrounding Cloverfield, which gave the movie itself a new level of intrigue for me (I *loved* the movie)

It seems like LOST is now drawing off of the success of such campaigns and launching its own spew of viral marketing, including some kind of altered reality, bringing elements of LOST directly into the real world.

Pretty stinkin' cool, huh?

I've been researching this for months on various LOST forums and blogs that I stalk, and it all pointed to the fact that something fishy was going on with The Powers That Be (aka, LOST writers.. while they weren't striking, that is)

It's really too complicated to begin to explain, but maybe I can break down the major elements.

We all know that LOST is set in the year 2004. The plane crashed in September of 2004, and as of the most recent episode, the survivors have been living on the island for 3 months.

During last year's season finale, we were shown a flash forward, indicating that the survivors (at least some of them.. I'll get to that later) did indeed get off of the island. There are other clues in the flash forward that indicate that those scenes were from current "real life" time.. 2008 (new cars not around in 2004.. new cell phones, etc)

(As a side note.. did anyone catch the name of the funeral home Jack visited in that episode? "Hoffs-Drawlar". An anagram for "flash forward" Cool, eh?)

Anyway, viral marketing.

These billboards popped up here in good old Knoxville recently:



Rawr! No mention of the show itself, ABC, or any of the cast.. just an advertisement for the fictional airline itself.. which is reportedly now getting "back on its feet" following its downfall after the Flight 815 crash in 2004.

Why Knoxville? If you were paying attention to earlier seasons of the show, Knoxville is the hometown of our resident hottie and redneck con-man, Sawyer. Billboards are reportedly showing up in the following cities as well:


Los Angeles, CA
Tustin, CA
Ames, IA
Miami, FL
New York, NY
Portland, OR
Seoul, South Korea
Sydney, Australia

Head on over to the blog: http://oceanic-conspiracies.blogspot.com/ to read more about this altered reality, which is no doubt going to pull LOST's rankings out of the sewer again.

LOST fans, keep your eyes open! What is so interesting about viral marketing is that clues can show up ANYWHERE.. popular video sites (YouTube, Veoh, Viddler, etc), commercials (did anyone see the Oceanic Airlines commercial during the Eli Stone premier tonight? I had the TV on for background noise and was blind-sided by it! holy crap! A clip of the wreckage of the plane on the bottom of the ocean floor! WTF?? A clip to Sam saying "do not trust these people!" Eeee! I want more!)

All I have to say is that my loyalty to the show was faltering quickly with the endless opening of doors without EVER closing them, but this has completely sucked me back in. Now fans don't have to wait months upon months for new episodes.. clues can show up anywhere, anytime!

Alright, I'm done being a giddy obsessive fan. Carry on.