Warner Bros. Would Like You to Do Their Dark Knight Marketing For Them, Please
Phase 2 of Warner Bros.’ marketing plans for The Dark Knight (phase 1 having ended immediately after Heath Ledger kicked it and they had to shred all of their Joker-based campaigns) have begun with a Harvey Dent/Two-Face website at IBelieveinHarveyDent.com.
It’s not much of a site, actually; there’s very little of Aaron Eckhart as Dent, no mention of his political platforms, and no Batman; there is, however, a great deal of barely disguised begging from Warner for folks to virally promote both the site and the movie, by “showing their support for Dent” in public places and ways. The site has a number of printable Dent campaign banners, but does ask for people to, and I quote:
? Make up a ?Dent Dance? routine
? See if you can get up a Harvey Dent sign in every single window of your dorm building
? Turn your own car into a ?Dentmobile?
? Arrange a Dent parade down Main Street
…among other things, then upload them to the site, more or less so Warner Bros. can get drunk, sketch out some movie posters and shit like that. So! If you ever wanted to work as an unpaid intern in Warner Bros.’ marketing department, today’s your lucky day, I guess.
About The Author
Robert Bricken is one of the original co-founders of the site formerly known as Topless Robot, and its first editor-in-chief, serving from 2008-12. He brought the site to prominence with “nerd news, humor and self-loathing” as its motto, raising it from total internet obscurity to a readership in the millions, with help from his savage “FAQ” movie reviews and Fan Fiction Fridays. Under his tenure Topless Robot was covered by Gawker, Wired, Defamer, New York magazine, ABC News, and others, and his articles have been praised by Roger Ebert, Avengers actor Clark Gregg, comedian and The Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman, the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax, and others. He is currently the managing editor of io9.com. Despite decades as both an amateur and professional nerd, he continues to be completely unprepared for either the zombie apocalypse or the robot uprising.