WhySoSerious.com

Despite Heath Ledger’s Death, Warner Bros. Presses on With Joker’s Viral Marketing For ‘The Dark Knight’

HollywoodChicago.com — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 22:34:35 -0700

CHICAGO – Once the swarm of sorrow hit the world on Jan. 22, 2008 following news of Heath Ledger’s death, questions soon ensued about its impact on Chris Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” and Terry Gilliam’s “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”.

While the status of “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” is entirely in limbo, “The Dark Knight” had completed filming and is in post-production. Still, followers wondered how Warner Bros. would tactfully react with its viral marketing and how it would advertise Ledger’s dark and crazed Joker character.

HollywoodChicago.com just received an answer: the show is going on. Our repeatedly reliable source (who was awarded the cell phone-embedded cake in Chicago from a WhySoSerious.com viral marketing effort) is back with new news from moments ago:

A WhySoSerious.com viral marketing movie
poster for “The Dark Knight”.
Image credit: IMDB

Good evening, Adam!

Chicago Joker phone here. I just got a text at 10:49 p.m. on the cake phone that said $30 was added to my account and the phone is now good until March 29, 2008.

After looking at the account information [from] the phone [that] was initially received in [Dec. 2007], I found the phones were set to expire tomorrow (Jan. 30, 2008). With the addition of the extra minutes, this means the viral campaign lives on despite the untimely death of Heath Ledger (may he rest in peace).

I have looked on message boards and several of the other cities have also confirmed that their phones have received extensions until the end of March.

I applaud Warner Bros. for continuing the marketing campaign and not letting the fans down. We all have the greatest respect for Mr. Ledger and I believe we all know how to separate the Joker character from Heath. I cannot wait for the next viral [campaign] to start. I will keep you updated as always. Thanks!

~ Vlkers54

3:25 p.m. update on Jan. 30, 2008: The source above just wrote back with another update. This information is from another informed Superhero! Hype message board member known as ianskyvox.

I just did a little bit of research [that] may shed some light on the scenario. Apparently whenever you add credit to pay-as-you-go phones with Verizon (such as these) the amount you add is good for two months.

Since we got the phones [on Dec. 4, 2007], they probably activated the accounts in late [Nov. 2007] so they could be shipped out and put in the cakes. Two months after that would be today (Jan. 29, 2008). Since the accounts were renewed today [on Jan. 29, 2008], they expire again on March 29, 2008 (in exactly two months).

There’s a possibility this is what was actually going to happen all along even if we hadn’t tragically lost our clown prince. This could even go on for months and months on end. [We could receive] another message on March 29, 2008 saying the accounts have been renewed again.

Our last [text] before this did say: “It’s time to be patient.”

Vlkers54 added: “It seems they might not have had a plan until after Jan. 30, 2008 to begin with. We will have to just be patient as [the Joker] has instructed us to be.”

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Editor-in-Chief
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com

Poster Mayhem: Multiple New Posters Surface For ‘The Dark Knight’; Bootlegged Trailer Leaks

HollywoodChicago.com — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 10:43:28 -0700

Three new posters surfaced in the last 24 hours for “The Dark Knight” and fans didn’t even have to work hard for them through viral games. The first poster is the film’s international teaser poster.

A high-resolution version of this poster can be found here. I first learned about this from Paul at this link. The international poster has also sprung up all over the Web and is now at Superhero Hype!, Omelete, Collider and /Film.

Omelete is being credited as premiering the above international teaser poster. Next in line, Allocine premiered the following international Joker poster. The high-resolution version of the Joker poster can be found here.

In a Superhero Hype! post about this Joker poster, we also see a bootlegged domestic poster now appearing in theaters.

Finally, /Film and AICN both have posts that a bootlegged version of “The Dark Knight” trailer has already been leaked onto YouTube. It’s now, of course, gone. We cited a report on Thursday saying the real deal will surface early next week. Stay tuned.

11:57 a.m. update: The bootlegged trailer is back online. Enjoy. It’s also here. Plus, it’s now back on YouTube and I’ve embedded it below.

12:29 p.m. update: A new “The Dark Knight” viral Web site has just been found at http://www.atasteforthetheatrical.com that says the official trailer will be coming on Sunday, Dec. 16.

The text at ATasteForTheTheatrical.com reads:

Sunday. It’s what you have been waiting for! Sure, you can see it on display, but beginning this Sunday, you can take it home for your very own!

9:21 p.m. update: The YouTube video embedded above has been eaten again due to a copyright claim by Warner Bros. It’s still up at the links above, though, and JoBlo is also now hosting it directly.

I’ve also been e-mailed by Berge Garabedian at JoBlo with a head’s up that it can be embedded. I’ve done so below.

New WhySoSerious.com Page at /steprightup Unveils Final ‘The Dark Knight’ Challenge

HollywoodChicago.com — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 11:31:24 -0700

Following our Dec. 3 post about a new WhySoSerious.com challenge at www.whysoserious.com/steprightup, the countdown has come to an end and the final challenge has been unveiled.

Various toys are visible all with a physical address in various U.S. cities pinned on them. By instruction, you must travel to these locations. You can’t call them.

The instructions ask you to go on location under the name “Robin Banks” (also known as “Robbing Banks”) with one prize awarded per location on a first-come, first-served basis.

The locations are all bakery stores. The prizes are all bakery delights with an attached phone number. As the bears disappear with each new discovery, the mallet hits harder.

Thanks go to Paul for these descriptions. As the bears disappear, more appear. It becomes evident that the number of bears equals the number of lights. Cakes are awarded at locations.

The note reads:

Wow. You really took the cake! Now put the icing on it. Call (phone number) immediately from this phone and this phone only. Do not give this phone number to anyone else.

Let’s hope your fellow goons come through as well as you. Once all the layers are in place, you’ll all get your just desserts. I’m a man of my word.

3:32 p.m. update: I just received from a reader new photos of the Chicago cake from Halsted Street.

When the person called the phone number, a lady answered from Rent-a-Clown to thank the caller. She said she knew who the caller was. The caller then received a text from the Joker saying:

“Good work, clown! Keep this phone charged and with you at all times. Don’t call me. I will call you … eventually.”

Credit for these photos goes to VLKERS54. The person also told me: “I had to fight another kid for it (only verbally).”

4:58 p.m. update: Alas, the last cake was located and the day was won. With all the lights lit up and clicking on the top, the following page was revealed.

Upon clicking the right card, the following was revealed.

Free tickets are awarded. These look like this:

Upon clicking the left card, the prize of the day was revealed: a new poster.

A high-resolution, 100-megabyte version can be downloaded here.

New WhySoSerious.com Page: /steprightup; ‘The Dark Knight’ Prologue Revealed

HollywoodChicago.com — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 17:40:42 -0700

Moments ago, I received via e-mail from humanresources@whysoserious.com a new WhySoSerious.com message and code for “The Dark Knight” viral marketing.

Heads up, clown! Tomorrow means that there’s one last shifty step left in the interview process: Arwoeufgryo

By moving each letter one to the right on a QWERTY keyboard, the word “steprightup” is spelled.

This led to a new WhySoSerious.com page at the URL www.whysoserious.com/steprightup with a countdown to 12 p.m. EST on Dec. 4 along with a stuffed monkey with an exposed stomach.

If you set your system clock to noon on Tuesday (as was the answer to the /mausoleum riddle), the countdown changes to zero and nothing happens.

In other news, Wizard revealed the first six minutes of “The Dark Knight” from a screening shown in New York City. Warning: Spoilers follow.

Kicking off with a sweeping shot of downtown Gotham, the camera zooms in above a few buildings before focusing in on a single, traditional skyscraper covered in windows.

Suddenly, one window in the skyscraper explodes outward [and exposes] two criminals inside.

Donning clown masks and standing with a rifle, the two criminals shoot a grappling hook across a busy street below to the next building: the Gotham National Bank.

The two then slide across using a zip line.

On the street below, a man stands [with] his face unseen as the shot creeps up from behind [and] a clown mask slung in his grip. A van suddenly screeches up before he climbs inside and the van hauls off again.

Inside, there are now three men all wearing clown masks. They begin negatively discussing their boss and how he’s sitting out the heist.

“The guy thinks he can sit out and get a cut?,” laughs one man. “Must be why they call him the Joker!”

Back on the bank’s roof, the two men we first saw now shimmy into the bank’s security wiring while also discussing the boss.

“Why do you think they call him Joker?,” asks one. “I hear it’s [because] he wears make-up,” answers the other. “Like war paint.”

Suddenly – below – the three men blast into the bank. [They demand] money and [command] everybody to the floor.

Back on the roof, the two criminals intercept the outgoing emergency alarm set off by an employee. After they cancel its signal, one of the men shoots the other and heads inside for the vault.

Back inside, the clown gunmen hand all the hostages live grenades. “We wouldn’t want your hands free, would we?,” asks one with a laugh.

Continue reading the prologue description here.

New WhySoSerious.com Page Emerges For ‘The Dark Knight’: /outoftime

HollywoodChicago.com — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 09:54:56 -0700

While the rest of us were sleeping, Paul over at “The Dark Knight” Movie Chronicles sent us the full details of what’s happened next with “The Dark Knight” in viral land.

As we turn the corner into the cold and bitter December, the night was once again a flurry of “The Dark Knight” viral puzzles.

Given the combined map of Gotham from all the viral Web sites and using a connect-the-dots method, a message stating “Out of Time” was spelled out across the map.

This led to the new WhySoSerious.com page, which is located at www.whysoserious.com/outoftime. The Joker revealed this message:

“My kind of clown! You’re obviously center-ring material unlike some poor goons who can’t complete one simple task. Watch the funny papers in a few days for your final step in the process.”

The name on the tag is Alder Frederick. The date of death is Nov. 30 caused by asphyxia.

An e-mail address was also discovered at that spewed out some interesting responses to queries about document LC6551. As a result, a GPD login form was discovered using the name BreitupKarl and the password 21485.

Logging in and doing a file search for LC6551 yeilds the document LC6551, which is titled “Upswing in Extortions & Chechen Gang Activity”. Here are some of the e-mail responses:

Glenn wrote: “With all due respect like I’ve told your friends, I just can’t discuss LC6551 or IA8214299 for that matter. I don’t know who’s leaking these, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m just not at liberty to discuss sensitive information.”

“[Karl Breitup] will meet someone at Betty’s Pie Shop tomorrow. I can give you more information, but you will need to cooperate with me for that.”

To access the second-referenced document, you need a login with higher authority. This is Glenn Barhyte’s account. The name is BarhyteGlenn and the password is tevredenheid.

This word is satisfaction in Dutch given via the clues for his favorite song by the Rolling Stones in combination with the file stating he lived in Utrecht for nine years, according to The Gotham Times.

IA8214299 is a clearance request that discusses the surveillance of Betty’s House of Pies: six officers, no uniforms, a listening van and equipment for recording.

Further details of this stakeout can be found in a memo. Using Glenn’s login details, a live feed will be played here at 3 p.m. on Saturday.

New WhySoSerious.com Page Emerges For ‘The Dark Knight’ Viral Marketing: /mausoleum

HollywoodChicago.com — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 15:16:18 -0700

At 4 p.m. on Tuesday, a new code emerged from WhySoSerious.com and the viral folks at “The Dark Knight”. I received this code via e-mail from humanresources@whysoserious.com:

If you’ve finished my quiz, then it’s time for the next step in the interview process – something to test your aptitude. Spaces count:

* Eighth
* Sixth
* Eighth
* Ninth
* Ninth
* Second
* Fourth
* Second
* Third

Next, the URL http://www.whysoserious.com/mausoleum was discovered from the end of the WhySoSerious.com personality profile. The letters “M-A-U-S-O-L-E-U-M” can be found in your final grade.

I have outlined the letters in blue and created the image below.

Next, we must crack the code on a “precinct 12 evidence vault”.

First, we click on the dial and it zooms in so we can turn it and submit our guesses using the lever.

Once you zoom into the vault dial, a note with a clue is revealed by clicking it in the upper-left corner of your screen.

In the note, there are blood-stained letters. When added together, they spell “T-I-M-E | F-O-R | T-A-F-F-Y”. According to The Gotham Times, Johnny “Taffyface” Linata died at 7:38 a.m.

I have created a zoomed-in image and outlined in blue on page one of the newspaper where this was learned.

The text reads: “The butcher’s bill started at 7:38 a.m. when Maroni lieutenant Johnny ‘Taffyface’ Linata was killed by a…”

Answer: Change your computer’s system clock to 7:38 a.m. The safe will automatically open. Then, the following note is revealed.

When you click the new note, the following montage is revealed.

From there, we learn about another new site – the Gotham Unified School District – at GothamUSD.net.

Stay tuned “in a few days” for “another little job”. In other news, yet another new site surfaced today: GothamCab.com.

Also, AcmeSecuritySystems.com just surfaced and is related.

Slew of Sites Launch: TheGothamTimes.com, TheHaHaHaTimes.com, WeAreTheAnswer.org, GothamPolice.com, GothamNationalBank.com

HollywoodChicago.com — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 08:31:41 -0700

As promised, TheGothamTimes.com on Friday launched its first newspaper edition of The Gotham Times for “The Dark Knight”. It’s currently four pages.

Also, the phone number 866-237-6480 was released on the site “for subscription information”. The recorded message says new subscriptions have been suspended and directs you back to the site.

Also, TheHaHaHaTimes.com has launched to mock The Gotham Times newspaper at TheGothamTimes.com. It’s the same paper but with the Joker’s artistic expression.

TheHaHaHaTimes.com is discovered by clicking a tear in the upper-left part of the paper at TheGothamTimes.com.

Also, WeAreTheAnswer.org just launched as a tip-submission page for communication with the Gotham Police Department.

Also, GothamPolice.com just launched to apply for police work.

Also, GothamNationalBank.com launched for Gotham’s banking needs.

Also, RemberingGina.org just launched. It doesn’t initially appear related to the new sites, but upon reading page four of The Gotham Times, you learn that this woman dies. The site is her memorial.

Also, a 14-question personality profile has launched at WhySoSerious.com.

Also, GothamCityRail.com has launched to mirror Chicago’s rail construction. The e-mail feedback@gothamcityrail.com is listed. This find comes courtesy of reader Roy Enjambre Jr.

Also, stay tuned for GothamCityHall.com. It’s currently under construction. On GothamPolice.com, this is mentioned: “Applications for the exam are available at city hall.”

In Next Viral Caper, ‘The Dark Knight’ to Activate TheGothamTimes.com

HollywoodChicago.com — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 21:07:49 -0700

Following WhySoSerious.com, RorysDeathKiss.com and others in the film’s viral sequence, “The Dark Knight” on Nov. 23 plans to activate its next site: TheGothamTimes.com.

As a reward to triumphant fans who successfully sported quality Joker attire and submitted photos of said getups online, a Gotham Times newspaper was dispatched to them via snail mail.

The following photos of the paper are credited to this site.

To continue what’s evolving into one of the most elaborate and effective viral campaigns for a film to date, the paper announced TheGothamTimes.com. The new Web site currently says “the first online edition launches on Friday, Nov. 23”.

The newspaper also announced the site WeAreTheAnswer.org, which isn’t currently online. Finally, the paper mentioned the e-mail address humanresources@whysoserious.com. When e-mailed, the following auto-reply message is returned:

See you found my little message. So, do you think you have what it takes to be a part of my circle of friends?

Are you a backstabbing, self-promoting, ambitious clown who will do anything to prove yourself to me?

If so, the first step of your application process awaits … if you know where to look.

Stay tuned for more coverage on the new campaign.

‘I Am Legend’ Unveils Viral Site I-Am-Immune.com

HollywoodChicago.com — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 08:57:04 -0700

The power of the talking mouth is the best and cheapest form of PR there is. Films are increasingly cashing in on the viral wave using Web sites to spur conversation and create an evocative attachment.

We’ve been deluged with masterful viral work from “The Dark Knight” using Web sites including WhySoSerious.com, RorysDeathKiss.com and IBelieveInHarveyDent.com. Moments ago, the Will Smith film “I Am Legend” went public with one if its own.

I-Am-Immune.com has launched to play a literal viral game.

The site, which is the official “community” for the film, will offer original and behind-the-scenes information about the film, a chance for fans to speak up, online and street challenges (“The Dark Knight” fans know these all too well), “free swag” and “insane prizing”.

I am told the site is also boldly promising the opportunity to “see the biggest movie stars of the year at the largest movie premiere of the century”.

As a member of I-Am-Immune.com, your objective is to stay active and stay immune. Members will be tasked with weekly online challenges along with three offline challenges.

Will Smith in “I Am Legend”.
Image credit: IMDb
A VIP trip for two to New York City will be dished out for the world premiere of “I Am Legend” at Madison Square Garden. The plane ticket and hotel stay are covered.

In terms of street challenges, members of the viral site will visit a section of the site (called “street challenges”) where they will be tasked with going to a specific location on a specific day and time within their city (one of 14 markets) to snag a swag item.

It’ll contain a code that must be entered into the “street challenges” section of the site. Once the code is entered, members will be eligible to win prizes and gain access to the next street challenge.

“I Am Legend” and “The Dark Knight” are both from Warner Bros.

Rory’s Death Kiss Reveals Submission Page, Nov. 17 Deadline For ‘The Dark Knight’

HollywoodChicago.com — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 08:44:16 -0700

Prompted by “The Dark Knight” viral marketing wizards, the mass organization and real-life clown mayhem has officially begun.

Let’s recap. Moments before midnight Chicago time on Oct. 30 (I know because I was clicking refresh on WhySoSerious.com throughout the 11 o’clock hour), WhySoSerious.com revealed its Halloween game.

The challenge had fans gallivanting around the streets of the U.S. capturing photos of letters based on clues. Pictures were submitted online, and when they were correct, they began forming a sentence.

In the end, this was revealed: “The only sensible way to live in this world is without rules.” Enthusiasts were rewarded with a new photo of the Joker, but ultimately, they crave more for their work.

A follow-up challenge ensued from a new domain name: RorysDeathKiss.com. It asked fans to organize in large numbers at the “most famous landmark in your city” dressed up like the Joker.

Fans are to photograph these gatherings, but initially, weren’t informed how to submit them. Now they can. At the bottom of the Rory’s Death Kiss note, the word “Smile” has become an active link.

I have made a screenshot of the page below and outlined in a red box where to click. To make it easy on you, here’s the direct link to the submission page, too.

Upon clicking the “Smile,” a new page loads. It’s the submission page for fans to send in their photos of landmark clown chaos. See the screenshot below.

Notice the 11:59 p.m. deadline on Nov. 17 for photo submissions. Also, notice the new privacy policy from Warner Bros.

On Nov. 1, I published more than 20 photos submitted to me and posted to threads of fans costumed as the Joker on Halloween. The same offer stands for these group photos. Send them here.

10:45 a.m. update: HollywoodChicago.com cohort Peter Sciretta at /Film recently published a scanned filming notice alerting Hong Kong residents of “The Dark Knight” aerial filming to “introduce Hong Kong in the film” using high-tech IMAX cameras.