‘Heroes’ and the Cloverfield Viral Marketing Campaign
Remember a few months back when Greg Beeman posted that blog with photos of all the characters drinking “Slusho” brand drinks? He said, “The next group of photos falls into the ‘don’t ask/don’t tell’ category…Their cultural significance will become clear in the coming months, so…pay attention.” Then later, we saw Elle (Kristen Bell) slurping on a “Slusho” in her car as she spied on Claire and her family. Silly me, I thought I was grasping the significance of Slusho by catching the name on Elle’s cup. There’s a little more to it than that.
Fans of the J.J. Abrams series, Alias, will remember “Slusho” from that show and probably just figured Greg Grunberg (who was an Alias cast member and good friend of J.J.’s) was bringing out his old props. Turns out it was all part of the viral marketing campaign for Abrams’ new flick, Cloverfield.
In a trailer for the film, one of the characters wears a “Slusho” t-shirt. Internet savvy fans discovered a website (http://www.slusho.jp/) for the beverage, which is presumably a rival of Slurpee, and a rather strange commercial. While those things didn’t initally appear to have anything to do with the movie, a series of fake news reports was later released online reporting the destruction of drilling platforms in the middle of the ocean. Those platforms were owned by Tagruato, which happens to be the parent company of Slusho (as indicated on that fake website).
The Heroes tie-in was just one of many clues put out there. The marketing team for Cloverfield has been busy for months creating websites and trailers to entice movie fans. But did it work? If opening weekend estimates are any indication, it did. With opening weekend receipts of $41 million Cloverfield beat the January record set by the reissue of Star Wars Episode I in January 1997.
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Photo Source: Beaming Beeman
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January 25th, 2008 at 5:59 am
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February 2nd, 2008 at 6:47 am
[…] Quinto, Greg Grunberg, Noah-Gray Cabey and Masi Oka attended the premiere of Cloverfield at the Paramount Pictures Lot in Los Angeles on January […]