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July 22nd, 2006
07:43 am - Marketing is hard, let's go shopping
All right. I've just watched a really professionally made film that lasted about an hour and a bit, apparently made and freely (as in beer) released by a director who claims to be tired of Hollywood and its monopoly on the film industry. "My plan is to use the power of the Internet to create an entirely new and completely free distribution model for movies. I intend to make exactly $0 from this project. My goal is not money, but instead entertainment and I will go to great lengths to make sure this movie is available to all free of charge."
Obviously, it's a subtle advert, especially as there appear to be no references to the director outside the context of this film elsewhere on the Web. It's also so subtle an advert that only one other blog, as far as I can tell, has spotted it's an advert, or at least some sort of viral marketing gimmick. (Not so subtle that I didn't pick up on it, though, and I tend to fall hook, line and sinker for things less subtle than sledgehammers.)
Without telling you what the film is, or even what sort of company is doing the advertising, but noting that the breathtaking aspect about the endeavour is the incredible artifice to disguise the fact that it's an advert; which company is doing the most interesting, widespread, wacky, too-cool massively multimedia marketing in the world at the moment?
It isn't even that interesting a film; I only stuck with it on the basis that the subject matter is something for which I am a fairly soft target, and they've done a very good job with it - especially on covering up their tracks and playing along that it's all for real. I just don't quite feel like giving it further publicity myself. (Yet.)
Current Mood: impressed but suckered
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![[User Picture]](https://l-userpic.livejournal.com/5994716/635110) | | From: |  elethe |
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| Date: | July 22nd, 2006 07:44 am (UTC) |
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With this info it took me approximately five seconds to track down this film.
Staredown? Clearly from the website it is a marketing tool or elaborate practical joke - but the director looks like Pee Wee Hermann/Paul Reubens in a ginger wig (from what I can see from the picture where he has his hands over his face) - so I am going to assume it's Paul Reuben's comeback after all the false charges that were made. Until proved otherwise. | | From: | elethe |
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| Date: | July 22nd, 2006 08:09 am (UTC) |
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It's made by "JR Services" - there is a AD-blasting site called JR services - a way to monitor how your ad is going all over the web. Sounds like it could be the very thing considering the viral nature of the film. It may be a tester site or something. | From: | (Anonymous) |
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| Date: | July 22nd, 2006 09:20 am (UTC) |
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But isn't that the director's (JR McCord) company? The JR services site | From: | (Anonymous) |
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| Date: | July 22nd, 2006 09:20 am (UTC) |
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But isn't that the director's (JR McCord) company? The JR services site you linked to looks a bit too unprofessional in comparison. Well found, you! I too had Googled for "JR Services" (based on this link) but had rejected that as unlikely. It's just about plausable that the people behind that are responsible for the film, but it does seem an awful stretch. I'm not familiar with Paul Reubens' work, but I would be delighted if this were his pseudonymous comeback and that a company had paid for product placement within, on the basis that the film was being made to advertise talent rather than a product, rather than this purely being the work of a company's marketing department. My verdict on this hypothesis: not yet proven. The link above suggests that the film was produced by one Debbie Brubaker, who does have a history, being quoted (in something clearly not connected with this campaign) as "godmother" of the San Francisco Bay Area independent movie world. She may be the only person that we can identify who knows for sure. All things considered, I vaguely approve of the entire enterprise, but am not convinced I full approve. Unrelatedly: if you're reading, JR McCord, or marketing team observing the progress of the phenomenon through the blogosphere, I would be most interested to observe you prove your reality to me - preferably by paying for me to fly to the US in order to meet you and so be proved wrong, or not, about the legitimacy of the staredown phenomenon. This would also have the benefit for you of me proving my reality to you, if you're inclined to turn the request upon its head :-D |
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