Untraceable viral campaign halted by Facebook
Feature by Jack Foley
AN online marketing campaign promoting the release of new thriller Untraceable by Universal Pictures is causing controversy after being shut down by social network Facebook.
The film, directed by Gregory Hoblit and starring Diane Lane, chronicles the search for a serial killer who has created an “untraceable” website where he conducts violent and painful murders live on the net.
The suspect maintains throughout, however, that none of the victims would die if surfers didn’t log on to see it.
To promote the international release, Universal created a KILL WITH ME page on Facebook. The more fans the page received, the more of an extended torture sequence from the film was made available to view.
This was accompanied by a Facebook-only banner campaign, warning visitors not to visit the page in question.
Shortly after midnight on Monday night (February 25, 2008), however, Universal received a message from Facebook explaining that the page had been removed on the basis that “pages that are hateful, threatening, or obscene are not allowed”.
The Facebook banners have subsequently been redirected to a new website URL where the torture sequence remains available to view and will continue to be extended based on the number of hits it receives.
Furthermore, if the site receives over 10,000 visits before Untraceable‘s UK release on Friday, February 29 it will be updated to show the entire first 10 minutes of the film.
Neil Wirasinha, director of International Advertising Media at Universal Picture International, commented: “We were prepared for the possibility that Facebook would take this action, but we’re disappointed to lose the many fans the page was starting to attract. Hopefully, they will pick up the clues to the new destination.”
Further Untraceable controversy
The Facebook ban follows hot on the heels of a controversial “Alternate Reality Game” (ARG) produced by Universal within live invite-only video-blogging community Seesmic
The ARG depicted a community member being abducted and violently electrocuted over a 48-hour period. It used a Twitter feed to create a digital ‘paper-trail’ leading back to the film’s website.
The decision was taken to pull the plug on the ARG after a Seesmic moderator mistook it for real-life torture and threatened to involve the authorities.
Following discussions between Seesmic and Picture Production Company (PPC), the creative marketing agency behind this activity, both Seesmic and PPC have posed the question of what a video needs to depict before the community should take action.
Dan Light, head of Interactive at PPC, said: “This [Untraceable] was always intended to be a provocative campaign. At a time when censorship of online video is high on the agenda, this has been a great way to bring issues at the heart of the film to life for audiences online.”
Our verdict
Having seen Gregory Hoblit’s film, Untraceable does indeed raise some very valid issues concerning the streaming of footage on the internet – whether it’s the proliferation of pornography or news footage of terrorist atrocities.
What’s more, it raises the very serious “what if” scenario of internet-based torture and murder and could – in turn – be one day accused of having life imitate art.
A film of this nature was always likely to create an online stir given the number of ways it could be promoted and it’s no surprise to find a couple of the viral marketing campaigns have come under fire.
While certainly ingenious and a guaranteed way of bringing the film some notoriety, there’s also no denying that it’s a fairly sick and twisted way of promoting a movie – especially in its use of provocative torture material.
So while it does raise a valid debate about online censorship and whether the net needs more regulation and tighter quality control, it also exists to further the commercial potential of the film itself. And is that not morally dubious?
By covering the story, could not IndieLondon be accused of furthering the visibility of the sites in question too? Well, that’s why we’ve chosen not to disclose the new address of the KillWithMe hit counter website, so that we can’t be accused of furthering the flow of traffic to the site. You can visit the film’s website instead and question your own morality…
Untraceable is an above average thriller that benefits from a strong director and a good cast. But it’s also likely to further the debate surrounding torture porn/gore porn in mainstream cinema. Tactics such as the Facebook marketing campaign just might do more harm than good for a number of reasons.
And what of the people supporting it themselves? Do they really need to become an accomplice to the showing of more torture on the internet? Had we provided the link to the site in question, would you be intrigued enough to visit? Or will you now seek to find the links for yourselves?
Let us know what you think? Is the internet an increasingly dangerous place?
I liked the movie it was suspenseful and exciting and well made. Diane Lane was superb in the lead role and the whole thing was very thought-provoking - shame about the marketing campaign though.
dean crow Feb 28 #