The flattening of media
The novelty of reading the Onion, seeing a compelling ad, clicking on it to find a Wes Anderson-esque video with a Magnetic Fields soundtrack, and then being confused about whether there is even a product behind the multi-level video-drama that follows it before noticing the lincolnmercury url and the totally tangential mention of the Mariner SUV has still not worn off.
Like, wtf?
UPDATE: Seems like it’s working.
In the first five weeks of the campaign that was introduced on Nov. 1, the company attracted 1.3 million visitors to its Web site, compared with last year’s monthly average of about 220,000 visitors. The films attracted 377,000 visitors, and 116,000 computer users surfed to the section of the site that showcased the Mariner, with 32,000 offering e-mail addresses to learn more about the car.
Last year, information relating to a particular nameplate attracted about 40,000 visitors.
Who knew so many people trusted Stephen Merrit to sell them cars.