Exclusive: Chicago Police Break Up Harvey Dent Viral Marketing Campaign For ‘The Dark Knight’

I received the following official “The Dark Knight” viral marketing e-mail notification from takebackourcity@ibelieveinharveydent.com at 11:38 p.m. on March 12, 2008:

The Dentmobiles Are Hitting the Road!
Cross-Country Tour of Campaign Bus Continues as Thousands of Dent Supporters March, Rally For the One Man Who Can Save Gotham!

Check the updated schedule here to see if a Dentmobile is coming to your neighborhood.

Dent’s challenge to Gotham to show their desire for change has been met with a city-wide explosion of activism, with thousands of supporters organizing rallies, meet-ups, petition drives, and posting signs and placards in every neighborhood. Check out some of the best photos and videos here.

Dent is expected to make his decision whether to run for Gotham District Attorney within weeks and your support does make a difference!

**Special Alert**
For those of you who can get down to Rockefeller Center tomorrow morning between 6 and 9 am, there’s a very good chance your friends might be able to see you on a certain morning television show.

Spread the word. Make an impression! Let’s get creative in demonstrating our support! Take Back Gotham!

I received a second Harvey Dent Chicago viral marketing story via e-mail at 8:23 a.m. on March 13, 2008:

I arrived at the ‘dentmobile’ at about 7:35. It was a white van with Harvey Dent posters on it. There were two ‘campaign managers’ and another fellow Dent supporter (the same person who got the cake phone, he’ll be submitting photos sometime). We got stickers, buttons, and t-shirts to be street promoters. We waved picket signs. At 8 a cop came up to us and said we had to go. The managers cooperated and left. They said they would be at the later stops.

~ Tony C.

The “cake phone” person Tony refers to in this e-mail is Vlkers54. See our earlier “The Dark Knight” cake phone coverage here.

I got to the 11:00 one at Jackson&State at 11:35 and there was nothing there. One guy hanging around said that he had been there since 11:15 and it was broken up before he even got there. I don’t understand why people can’t hand out free stuff for a movie, while I get solicited by homeless and stupid organizations every 9 feet.

p.s. I’ll also be attempting the 4:00 one, but showing up at 3:30.

At 2:49 p.m. today, I received the following second report (again from Tony C.) on the 11 a.m. Harvey Dent campaign in Chicago:

The second attempt by the campaign managers in Chicago went largely without police interruption. By the time the dentmobile got to Jackson and State, about 5-10 of us were waiting. When it arrived, people came out of the woodwork to get the free stuff and promote Harvey Dent. We were being filmed as probably around 20 of use stood on the sidewalk chanting ‘Take Back Gotham’ and ‘I Believe in Harvey Dent’. It was very fun to partake in a Dent rally. We spent about 20-30 minutes screaming and chanting then we broke up.

~ Tony C.

This new account is in contrast to a first account on the 11 a.m. campaign that came in earlier.

Alright, so I’m going to the Madison one tomorrow, and I just want to know if everyone gets free shirts, or how you go about getting one exactly.

Vlkers54 strikes again!

New site! Keep an eye on it!
http://www.gothamelectionboard.com

Also, Not sure if you knew, but if you submit a picture on ibelieveinharveydent.com, you receive a voter registration card in the mail. I saw that someone on a different site got one and put up a scan so we could see what it looks like. When I get mine, I will send a picture to you. They apparently assign you to a specific “voting district” for voting in June. I am in the “Sheal” precinct. You can see the map of Gotham voting precincts on this page if you scroll to the bottom..of course it’s the link to my pic on the site but scroll down below it and you will see what I’m talking about. It appears they will actually be having us vote for Harvey in June….hmmmm….interesting.

~ Vlkers54

I just found yet another new site related to this campaign: GothamCityClerk.com! It mentions:

For current information about candidates and issues, please visit the following websites:

Candidates for Mayor:
(coming soon)

Candidates for District Attorney:
Harvey Dent
Roger Garcetti (coming soon)

General Information:
The Gotham Times

This implies to me that we’ll be seeing more viral sites for the candidates for mayor plus one for Roger Garcetti.

ANYONE who’s gone to one of the campaigns, please let me know if everyone gets shirts or how you go about getting one.

At 12:27 p.m. on March 19, 2008, I received the following follow-up e-mail related to this story.

Hello, Dent Believers!

It’s been great to see the response from all of you! We knew that citizens of Gotham would rally behind Harvey Dent and you have! (It was inspiring to see some of you on TV!) Gotham citizens have come out to meet the Dentmobiles, many of them using the Dentmobiles as an opportunity to meet up with other Harvey Dent supporters in their neighborhoods and build this grassroots campaign.

The momentum is building!

There have been sporadic reports of rallies being broken up by police, which is disturbing. Does it indicate a bias on the part of the men in blue? A backlash against Harvey Dent because of his campaign to stop corruption?

Harvey Dent is expected to make his decision whether to run for Gotham District Attorney within days, and seeing all of you out there with your signs and banners can only tell him that Gotham needs him! Gotham is asking for change! That we believe in Harvey Dent!

Spread the word. Make an impression! And don’t forget to check out the latest submissions at http://www.ibelieveinharveydent.com/youinaction.aspx. We’ve been told that Mr. Dent may be close to making a decision – so your efforts can make a difference!

Finally, don’t forget to check www.ibelieveinharveydent.com/ontheroad.aspx to see if a Dentmobile is coming to a neighborhood near you this weekend.

Take Back Gotham!

I submitted a photo on the site on March 15, how long does the card take to get to your house?

This report has been referenced in a March 24, 2008 news article in the following paragraph from the Los Angeles Times:

On March 12, however, a rally for the fictional D.A. candidate was broken up by Chicago police who seemed perplexed in the face of a group of volunteers handing out Harvey Dent bumper stickers, buttons and T-shirts.