August 31, 2006

Little Miss Sunshine Blossoms on the Web


Quick, run and jump into your VW bus and get to the movies to see Little Miss Sunshine.

Then run home and surf the web and experience the high tech low tech marketing tools used in the film's promotion. Visit the promotional website and don’t wait for a picture to load. There doesn’t seem to be one. Instead check out the links at the bottom. Ranging from Frank’s favorite blog featuring Proust and Dwayne’s browser homepage featuring Nietzsche to Design your own VW bus the links are surprising and engaging.

The advertising intermingles seamlessly with the virtual links to real topics of obsession of fictional characters. Where do fiction and reality begin and end? That is the beauty of the internet. It just doesn’t matter. Your interaction takes something virtual and animates it into a temporary reality.

This juxtaposition of reality and fiction must put purists into a headspin. How do they love a film that so blatantly promotes its advertisers? Frankly, I love this intermingling but then again smart marketing gets me jazzed.

Go ahead, design your own VW bus. You know you've always wanted one.