You may have seen the story regarding the buzz campaign for the new movie '28 weeks later'. The ad company thought they were being clever by littering city streets with graffiti logos of 'rage virus' symbols with only the website www.ragevirus.com as a clue to what was going on. Hilarity ensued when it was realised that they had failed to register the url before unleashing the campaign. One clever guy on b3ta claims to have come across the ad on his lunch break, gone back to work, realised the url was unregistered and bought it himself for £8.99. He claims that the money he was offered in exchange wasn't as much as you'd think, but enough to get himself a 'nice holiday'. Wish I'd though of that.
This comical error highlights the perils of such a strategy; if you're going to be clever, make sure you've covered all the bases, even the most obvious ones. All it takes is one for clever swine and you've got a massive payout. The fact that registering a website is so cheap and easy that, literally, the average man on the street can do it is yet another example of how new technology has transferred power to the little people.
It must be said though, it was a good idea. It tied in with the projection of the logo on the Dover cliffs, pictured above, exactly 28 days before the release of the movie on May 11th. I guess it's got people talking, but not about the right things.
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