It was
just a week or so ago that Devin caught you up on the beginnings of the viral
marketing efforts of Watchmen, which consisted of a
short-lived site that hosted a Rorschach symbol and an email address link. The tricky
part of the equation is that site was registered to Michael Regina of
OneRing.Net fame, and thus it was difficult to tell whether it was
studio-sanctioned or fan-inspired work. These days, it may not even matter
considering how much burn that J.J. Abrams 1-18-08/Cloverfield got from the
puzzle site http://www.ethanhaaswasright.com,
which Abrams claims was not part of his marketing efforts at all. But we’ll
have more on that a little bit later today.
As for Watchmen,
another site has popped up, this time under the guise of being associated with
one Adrian Veidt AKA Ozymandias. TheVeidtMethod.com is yet another OneRing.Net-hosted
site, but unlike the Rorschach page, this has the appearance – at a cursory
glance, at least – of being a little more substantial. But upon further
inspection…well, it’s a mess.
The page is
full of inactive menu links that would supposedly outline the workings of “The
Veidt Method”, a self-help course of mind and body enhancement. Beyond
that, it’s got some rather glaring spelling and grammatical errors, and a subscription
box that’s actually just a static graphic that hotlinks to the email address: Adrian@theveidtmethod.com. And
sending them mail gets you a form letter response that simply urges you to “finish”
any “courses” you’ve begun in the past. Interesting…
The big
question remains…how legit is it? Furthermore, how long will this be up
considering the fate of the first site? As we approach Comic-Con, the answers
will surely become clearer. For now…go with it.
[Note from Devin: These sites have nothing to do with Warner Bros or the Watchmen movie at all. They’re blatant attempts by the guy who runs The One Ring to get Warner Bros to give him money for marketing. I’d say to just ignore this bullshit, but if you have fun with these things, have a blast. But remember that this has nothing to do with the film.]