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Prometheus viral marketing: Well done, Ridley and Co.

By on May 3, 2012

Exploring the viral marketing for Prometheus has several consequences, some good, some maybe not good, depending on who you are. A part of me wants to avoid all marketing completely so I can go in to the film with an unspoiled mind, to see the film as an entity in and of itself. That part of me did not win the battle today, which is a testament to Ridley Scott and his team’s kind-of brilliant strategy. Prometheus the film isn’t just the film anymore. It’s an immersive experience. Many films have gone this route before but I dare say Prometheus is the most elegant of them all, thus far.

If you haven’t seen the Michael Fassbender “David 8″ video, and you are even a fraction of the Alien franchise fan that I am, you should really check it out (or even if you aren’t really a fan, it’s still worth checking out just to see Fassbender act). I admit that part of me was like, “Aw, dude, SPOILER!” but I suspect that the fact that we now know Fassbender’s character is an android isn’t really much of a spoiler for the film. After watching it I decided to go back to the Peter Weyland TED Talk video (Peter Weyland captivatingly played by one of my personal faves, Guy Pierce), which I loved from the get go.

After watching both videos in tandem a little explosion went off in my brain. They aren’t spoilers. They’re gifts. Little stories surrounding the film that broaden the film’s universe for the audience. More context, more depth, more understanding. It was a bit like the webisodes in between seasons of Battlestar Galactica. High-production quality gifts that drew the viewer a little bit more into the fictional world without really giving anything away. Seeds of information that have just enough time to gestate so they can burst through your chest during the main event.

And it’s not just these two videos. The hole goes much deeper if you care to delve into ProjectPrometheus.com and WeylandIndustries.com, two interrelated sites designed from the perspective of the Weyland corporation and structured as if to appeal to potential Weyland Industries investors (as opposed to avid Alien franchise film fans, though I’m sure the design and intent of the sites will change once the film is released). I feel like the purpose of these sites is to draw one deeper and deeper into the Prometheus/Alienuniverse and it has succeeded admirably, in my opinion. So go and explore, see if future you would be interested in investing in Weyland industries and the Prometheus Project to build a better world (just know that Cpt. Reynolds is not going to lay down so you and yours can go live in a better world…yeah, I went there, deal with it).

Well done Ridley and Co.

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I am on a constant quest to find what makes life interesting and beautiful. For me that ended up as a love affair with Carl Sagan, Neil Gaiman, my cat Alice Coltrane, and the city of Austin. For me film, literature and art are sacred expressions of the truest, and most interesting, aspects of humanity. I'm here to write about it.
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