'The Dark Knight' marketing sparks interest, becomes cultural event

Marketers at the firm 42 Entertainment (subcontracted by the "The Dark Knight's" distributor, Warner Bros.) seem to have tapped into Batman fanboys and comic-book geeks by using a variety of untraditional techniques to build awareness of the film strategically.

They didn't waste anytime either. The promotion push began more than a year before the film's release on July 18 and it still going strong.

The many facets of the promo efforts are part viral marketing initiative, and part "advertainment." This is where the marketing begins to become something that absorbs it's participants. This is called alternate reality gaming, and it has become the favorite topic movie and comic blogs ever since it began.

Jonathan Waite, founder of the Alternate Reality Gaming Network (argn.com) sees "The Dark Knight's" multifaceted promo push as transcending marketing to exist as a stand-alone cultural event.

"This is looked upon as viral marketing, but you have to look at it as an engrossing experience — you have people getting very attached to the game," Waite said. "You're not a passive onlooker; you're taking an active role. And any time you take an active role, you're emotionally connecting. That's why people keep coming back: You make personal connections with others, and a community gets built."

The Harvey Dent campaign propaganda is meant to publicize Batman's "Dark Knight" nemesis, Two Face. At the beginning of the "Dark Knight" marketing campaign, an official Web site for the film redirected viewers to ibelieveinharveydent.com — a URL that lacks any references to Batman and urges "concerned Gotham citizens" to "take back Gotham City" by supporting the candidate's campaign for district attorney. It also tells people how to get involved in the fake grass-roots political campaign by filming videos, writing "Take Back Gotham" songs and coming out to meet the "Dentmobile," currently touring several dozen American cities. Yet another site, http://www.ibelieveinharveydenttoo.com/ gives a clue about some connection between the Joker and Two Face that may be explained in the film. The Joker's message is hidden however. Bringing up the site you'll see a blacked-out page with the message: "Page not found." But by clicking "select all" from your browser's edit menu, and an erie message is revealed: a long sequence of repeating Ha ha ha's. There's also a message embedded within the chuckles.

"I've never been a fan of the Batman series," writes a poster on the marketing-analysis blog "Catch Up Lady," "but this sort of thing makes me want to go see it."

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