VIRAL NEWS

Updates on The Dark Knight's Viral Marketing - New Gotham Times Released!

by Alex Billington
March 26, 2008

The next phase of The Dark Knight viral campaign has started rolling out. A new issue of The Gotham Times has been posted on that website - TheGothamTimes.com - and the Harvey Dent campaign website - IBelieveInHarveyDent.com - has been revamped a bit with better graphics and campaign news. In addition, a plethora of new Gotham City related websites have appeared, courtesy of the latest issue of the newspaper, and the Joker has contacted all of his "people" again via text message on the cell phones distributed earlier. We will certainly be following this next phase at it begins to ramp up. However, the one thing that is certain - they're putting together one hell of a big election.

We just received an e-mail update from Harvey Dent's campaign website stating "We did it! Harvey Dent has officially announced he's running for Gotham District Attorney!" However, he's not alone. His two main competitors - Roger Garcetti and Dana Worthington - have started their campaigns, too. Garcetti is currently acting DA and has vowed to run the "cleanest campaign in Gotham history." Dana Worthington is one of Gotham's outstanding citizens - she is the founder of the Gotham Victims Advocate Foundation (gvafoundation.org). More info for her can be found at - DanaWorthington.com.

A few more websites have popped up, including a very informative Drudge Report mimic called Maiden Avenue Report - MaidenAvenueReport.com. New sites for more Gotham City services including GothamCableNews.com, SaintsWithunsChurch.org and GothamCab.com have also launched. One other site that has appeared is Citizens For Batman - CitizensForBatman.org. If I had to choose one group to support (over Harvey Dent or Joker), it would definitely have to be Batman. So I sent them an e-mail asking about joining and got this response back:

Dear Gotham Citizen,

Thanks for expressing your interest in joining Citizens for Batman. The easiest way you can join is by attending a meeting. Check the web site for meeting times. If you can't attend, you can always lobby City Hall to support Batman and stop any talk of his being arrested.

Looking forward to seeing you,

Brian Douglass
Founder and President, Citizens for Batman

I'm already loving this third phase of the viral marketing campaign and can't wait to see what's next. Last time something this big launched they went as far as putting cell phones in cakes. And you probably heard about the ruckus that all those Harvey Dent supporters made over the weekend. If all of that was just the start of this entire thing, then how far will they go next?!

We mentioned this originally a few weeks ago when the Dentmobile campaign was kicking off, but most believe that an actual election will eventually take place (at GothamElectionBoard.com). You had to submit your photo supporting Harvey Dent in order to become a registered voter in Gotham City. This whole idea for an election is, to say the least, pretty nuts. And obviously Dent has some strong competitors, so it's not going to be as easy of a win as we all thought. However, I will say, hosting an actual election with millions of people is a pretty immense marketing stunt.

Stay tuned for more updates on The Dark Knight viral marketing campaign as we receive them. Check out all of the websites above and let us know if you come across anything else new or exciting.

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