Dorkgasm Gonzo Is God

So, we all know about the next Batman movie, The Dark Knight, coming out this summer.  In anticipation of the film's release, there is currently a Dark Knight viral marketing campaign taking place.  Participants can call phone numbers, investigate web sites and receive packages to discover interesting Easter eggs related to the movie.  The latest viral event is called Operation Slipknot.  Participants who submitted their phone number at acme security system (at acmesecuritiessystems.com/delos) entered a password that triggered a phone call from Lt. Jim Gordon, informing call recipients that they "now work for him".  Participants, myself included, later received the following email message from Lt. Gordon:

The link to Operation Slipknot opens a webpage within the Gotham Police Department's Major Crime Unit, showing a number of PD officers with warrants out for their arrest.  According to the intel provided, these officers were supposed to be receiving packages containing passports, ID's and plane tickets to different destinations in order to avoid capture by the Gotham PD.  The concierge at the Intercontinental Hotel in Gotham City, the last place that all of these people were seen, is sending the packages out.  Your first mission is to call the concierge and convince him to send you the package instead using a password provided in an intercepted note from the mob.

Meanwhile, at the Operation Slipknot site, the following message displayed to anyone who clicked the "ASSIGNMENT" button.

Unfortunately, by the time my lazy ass got to the website people had already called the hotel number and all packages had been redirected.  When people started receiving these packages in the mail, they entered the information provided into the GCPD system so that, the police could catch the bad cops.  The assignment was updated throughout the next two days as the case progressed.  The game ended Thursday night at 6pm, at which point a new message appeared on the board along with an update on the status of all of the wanted police officers.  Three suspects remain at large, meaning that the package information was simply not entered in time.


Of course, there are no real criminals and there was no real apprehension of anyone but that it why it is called an Alternate Reality Game.

Complete contents of the package created for Officer Andrizzle and intercepted in Madison, WI.

The day after Operation Slipknot concluded, April 25th, the confiscated cell phones received a text message from humanresources@whysoserious.com.

This leads to the web page http://whysoserious.com/itsallpartoftheplan.  The Joker had already played a game from the Why So Serious site, so it was with eager anticipation that everyone typed in the new address.  The page displays portraits of 12 American icons, all of whom appear on some form of American currency.

    There is also a joker card pinned to the walk with a knife.  Clicking on it reveals the newest poster for The Dark Knight.  Just kick ass if you ask me.  But the fun is just beginning.  Each portrait corresponds to a city.  By selecting a portrait, a new window appears with the portrait moved aside and a clock counting down like a time bomb.  Below the clock is a message giving you instructions to "meet at the coordinates listed below".  The coordinates designated places in 12 different cities on three different continents.  The timer was set to expire at 5:30pm on Monday, April 28th. The portrait for
the city nearest me, Chicago, gave coordinates to Olive Park.

"TRAIL" and "ER"?  What could we possibly be hunting for?  Okay it's not a huge surprise that they are hunting for a new movie trailer.  Many believe that it is the trailer that premiered at the New York Comic Con, but we won't find out until we complete the scavenger hunt.

At 5:30pm, the page was updated to reveal three sets of instructions to gather a combination number. By clicking on the portrait you can now enter the combination for a small safe. In each safe there is a letter from the joker with a J taped to the bottom.

In the San Francisco safe, a second clue is found that helps decipher and unscramble the "J"s to create the words "Sitting Ducks".  This leads to Whysoserious.com/sittingducks, where you can shoot at ducks as if in an old shooting gallery.  After shooting the ducks down you are directed to a Jokerized classified ad from the Gotham Times about a projection-threading machine to be released this Sunday. 

This all happens as the fans that are in the listed locations are waiting for studio contacts in each city.  They are then redirected to a theatre where they are shown a copy of the new trailer but it has been Jokerized.  Covered in scribbles and phrases, the film is a hysterical adaptation of the original trailer.  One person in each city is selected via raffle to keep the reel of the new trailer.  However, those people who were helping their friends from their computers do not get to see the trailer.  In a protest of this, and to show everyone who couldn't make it, the video was almost instantly uploaded to youtube.com.  Many copies of the video are removed within a couple hours, but there are still bootleg copies throughout the web.  This is the Chicago version:

Now this is a hell of an ad campaign.  Designed by 42 Entertainment, the same company that designed the ad campaign for Nine Inch Nails Year Zero, this Alternate Reality Game plans to keep the fans involved all the way up to opening night.  The trailer shown originally at New York Comic Con is now playing before the Iron Man movie, which also rocked.  The trailer shows new parts of the movie and even a short glimpse at Harvey Dent as Two-Face.

So check it out online, do your own snooping and see what you can find.  I am eagerly awaiting the next step in this grand scheme.  The movie is set to premiere July 18th, at which point I plan to be sitting snugly in my recliner at the iPic, hibiscus martini in hand.  Hope to see you there.