Like most other media entities, movie studios are having to try harder and harder to break through and grab the attention of their potential audience, and one vehicle many are turning to is the so-called "alternate reality game" or ARG. This takes the central elements of the movie and weaves them into various online or real-world situations in order to build buzz about the film. In most cases, marketers try to get people hooked without revealing that it's related to a movie, since that tends to ruin the suspense.
In the case of the movie Untraceable, however -- which is about a sadistic serial killer who kidnaps and tortures his victims -- the marketing department in charge of promoting the film seems to have gone a little too far. An online component of the marketing campaign that involved a Facebook account, for example, was recently blocked by the social-networking site because it involved video clips that suggested someone had been kidnapped and was being held by a killer. A similar campaign was removed from the video site Seesmic.
Facebook said the campaign breached its terms of service, which prohibit "pages that are hateful, threatening, or obscene." A spokesman for the marketing company involved in the promotion stretched believability to the breaking point (at least in my opinion) when he told Variety that he was shocked and surprised that the campaign was banned from Facebook. "I am surprised and disappointed that Facebook have taken this action," he said. Mr. Light no doubt also believes in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.
Gee -- who would have thought that creating a fake account, and then pretending that the person using the account had been kidnapped and was about to be tortured (as the campaign did on Seesmic), would be seen as a bad thing? The Facebook group was called "Kill With Me," and revealed more and more of a torture video as more members joined. According to one report, the group advertised itself by saying: "This guy is going to die. You want to see his stinking flesh burn and bleed and blacken? Until he’s some twisted dead thing? This is what you want. And I’ve filmed it especially for you. The more fans I get, the more I’ll show."
According to a review of the movie done by The Independent, the film is about a serial killer who broadcasts video of his victims being tortured over the Internet, and kills them faster the more people tune in to watch. The review called the movie "morally duplicitous torture porn," and an argument could be made that the marketing campaign fell into the same moral quagmire. In any case, a marketing executive who said that "We were looking to promote a reaction, and we have definitely achieved this" is no doubt overjoyed with the outcome.
