The powers that be behind Lost have a new trick up their sleeve: An international, interactive game that will offer some information about the show.
It will begin May 2 in the United Kingdom, May 3 in the U.S. and May 6 in Australia. There is no winning prize, but the experience will offer clues that could unlock some of the island’s many secrets.
“It’s like a giant, worldwide mysterious jigsaw puzzle that will come to life for all the world to solve,” Mike Benson, senior vice president of marketing for ABC Entertainment, said in a statement.
What is known about the challenge is that it includes the introduction of new characters and the mysterious Hanso Foundation. The first clue requires finding a toll-free number that will be released during the show or commercial breaks.
Clues will vary by continent, so participants will benefit from coordinating their information. ABC said the game is designed to appeal to both fans and people unfamiliar with Lost.
Pretty cool. Add this to the Bad Twin book (which you can pick up on Amazon) and you can see how good these guys are at publicity. Is this a new paradigm for TV, or are they just outliers on the curve? I don’t know, but I’ll be interested to see what they come up with next.
There’s a few years’ tradition behind using these “Alternative Reality Games” as publicity vehicles — the genre was really kickstarted by “The Beast”, the game concurrent with A.I.‘s advertising campaign (I believe the entrance point was Googling a woman listed as the “robot therapist” in the trailer credits), and the Microsoft team behind that went on to do a similar, weirder, game (“I Love Bes”) for the Halo 2 release. The Wikipedia entry on ARGs also mentions a series of puzzles promoting “Push, Nevada”, which I’ve honestly never heard of.
I am such a LOST nerd that I have an email circle of similar sad types where we debate the ins and outs of episodes each Thursday. We are so going to be all over this game!
where do u play the game