THE FUTURE OF ADVERTISING ISN’T -.-. .... -.-. -.- --- ..- - WRITING BETTER SLOGANS OR USING COOL PHOTOGRAPHY OR VIDEO. - .... IT’S CREATING INTERACTIVE STORIES PEOPLE CAN EXPLORE OVER THEIR PHONES, -.-- . .- .-. --.. .-. --- -.-. .-.. ..- . ... .- - .-- .. .-. -.. ONTHE WEB, MAYBE EVEN THROUGH A FLASH DRIVE HIDDEN IN A BATHROOM. IT’S A NEW ART FORM. -.. --- - -.-. --- -- ... .-.. .- ... .... -..- - .-. .- ... JUST ASKNINEINCHNAILS’ TRENTREZNOR. BYFRANKROSE // PHOTOGRAPHS BYROBERT MAXWELL .---- ..... ....- NON-COMMISSIONED CREDITS TK HERE NON-COMMISSIONED CREDITS TK HERE 0 0 0 JAN 2008 ILLUSTRATION BY Firstnametk Lastname ILLUSTRATION BY Firstnametk Lastname JAN 2008 0 0 0 Alex Lieu, Susan Bonds, and Jordan Weisman of 42 Entertainment, which pioneered alternate reality games. ofHalo 2. One player even braved a Florida hurricane to take a call HE INITIAL CLUE WAS SO SUBTLE in a Burger King parking lot. Similar games have been THAT FOR NEARLY TWO DAYS used to launch scores of prod- ucts in the years since. GMD Stu- NOBODY NOTICED IT. dios, a Florida outfit, staged a fake auto theft to begin a game On February 10, 2007, the first night of Nine the legend “America Is Born Again.” Clicking Dead Man’s Chest. Reznor wanted for Audi that drew more than Inch Nails’ European tour, T-shirts went on and dragging the mouse across the screen, to give his fans a taste of life in 500,000 players. A London stu- sale at a 19th-century Lisbon concert hall however, revealed a much grimmer-looking a massively dysfunctional theo- dio called Hi-Res used television with what looked to be a printing error: Ran- site labeled “Another Version of the Truth.” cratic police state, and he decided ads and specially made choco- dom letters in the tour schedule on the back Clicking on that led to a forum about acts of that a game involving millions of late bars, among other things, seemed slightly boldfaced. Then a 27-year- underground resistance. players worldwide would help in a still-talked-about game old Lisbon photographer named Nuno Foros All this activity had been set in motion him do that in a big way. touting JJ Abrams’ Lost. More realized that, strung together, the boldface months before. Trent Reznor, the singer- Reznor was stepping into recently, someone—not 42—has letters spelled “i am trying to believe.” Foros songwriter behind Nine Inch Nails, had a new kind of interactive fic- been planting enigmatic clues on posted a photo of his T-shirt on the Spiral, been recording Year Zero, a grimly futuris- tion. These narratives unfold in Web sites and fake MySpace pro- the Nine Inch Nails fan forum. People started tic suite evoking an America beset by terror- fragments, in all sorts of media, files to promote a film Abrams typing “iamtryingtobelieve.com” into ism, ravaged by climate change, and ruled by from Web sites to phone calls is producing that so far is best their Web browsers. That led them to a site a Christian military dictatorship. “But I had to live events, and the audience known by the codename Clover- denouncing something called Parepin, a drug a problem,” he recalls, lounging on a second- pieces together the story from field. What’s all this about a apparently introduced into the US water floor deck of the house he’s remodeling in shards of information. The task Japanese drink called Slusho? supply. Ostensibly, Parepin was an antidote Beverly Hills: how to provide context for the is too complicated for any one And what does it have to do to bioterror agents, but in reality, the page songs. In the ’60s, concept albums came with person, but the Web enables a with the sudden appearance of declared, it was part of a government plot extensive liner notes and lots of artwork. MP3s collective intelligence to emerge a Godzilla-like monster in New to confuse and sedate citizens. Email sent don’t have that. “So I started thinking about to assemble the pieces, solve the York Harbor? Abrams fans have to the site’s contact link generated a cryptic how to make the world’s most elaborate album mysteries, and in the process, been falling all over themselves auto-response: “I’m drinking the water. So cover,” he says, “using the media of today.” tell and retell the story online. to figure it out. should you.” Online, fans world- “When done well, ARGs can be wide debated what this had to extraordinarily e!ective,” says Ty do with Nine Inch Nails. A setup Montague, creative director of the for the next album? Some kind J. Walter Thompson ad agency. of interactive game? Or what? That’s because the games offer A few days later, on February marketers a solution to a grow- 14, a woman named Sue was ing problem: how to reach people about to wash a di!erent T-shirt, who are so media-saturated they which she had bought at one of block all attempts to get through. the Lisbon shows, when she noticed that the Years earlier, Reznor had heard about a The narrative is shaped—and ultimately HEN WEISMAN opened Reznor’s email which was developing the Xbox and a num- “Your brain filters it out, because otherwise tour dates included several boldface digits. complex game played out over many months, owned—by the audience in ways that other at his lakefront house near Seattle, ber of videogames—including one based you’d go crazy,” Weisman says. That’s why he Fans quickly interpreted this as a Los Ange- both online and in the real world, in which forms of storytelling cannot match. No lon- he had barely heard of Nine Inch Nails. Slen- on AI—to support its launch. The AI game opted for a “subdural” approach: Instead of les telephone number. People who called it millions of people across the planet had ger passive consumers, the players live out der and soft-spoken, with curly dark hair never materialized, but the ARG Weis- shouting the message, hide it. “I figured that heard a recording of a newscaster announc- collectively solved a cascading series of the story. Eight years ago, this kind of enter- and a salt-and-pepper beard that gives him man created was phenomenally success- if the audience discovered something, they ing, “Presidential address: America is born puzzles, riddles, and treasure hunts that tainment didn’t exist; now dozens of such a vaguely Talmudic appearance, he’s not big ful. He left Microsoft and in 2003 decided would share it,” he explains, “because we all again,” followed by a distorted snippet of ultimately tied into the Steven Spielberg games are launched every year, many of on hardcore industrial rock. His experience to do ARGs full-time, launching 42 Enter- need something to talk about.” what could only be a new Nine Inch Nails movie AI: Artificial Intelligence. Developed them attracting millions of followers on is more in game design and social inter- tainment as a boutique marketing firm. He The ARG for AI began with an obscure song. Then, a woman named Ana reported by Jordan Weisman, then a Microsoft exec, it every continent. action, two fields he views as intimately took the name from The Hitchhiker’s Guide credit for a “sentient machine therapist” in finding a USB flash drive in a bathroom stall at was the first of what came to be called alter- How could this work for Year Zero? Reznor conjoined. “Games are about engaging with to the Galaxy, which maintains that “the both the trailer and a prerelease promotional the hall where the band had been playing. On nate reality games—ARGs for short. After had spent a long time thinking and writing the most entertaining thing on the planet,” Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, poster. Soon someone—all signs point to a the drive was a previously unreleased song, leaving Redmond, Weisman founded a about the future dystopia he imagined. Now he says, sipping co!ee in his guesthouse, the Universe, and Everything” is in fact 42. member of Weisman’s group—wrote Harry which she promptly uploaded. The metadata company called 42 Entertainment, which he wanted to share this story with his fans. “which is other people.” The company’s first game, ilovebees, had Knowles at Ain’t It Cool News, suggesting he tag on the song contained a clue that led to made ARGs for products ranging from He filled in the contact form on 42 Entertain- In 2001, Weisman was creative direc- people answering pay phones around the Google the therapist’s name. That led to a a site displaying a glowing wheat field, with Windows Vista to Pirates of the Caribbean: ment’s Web site and clicked Send. REZNOR GROOMING BY CORI BARDO FOR REDKEN/CELESTINEAGENCY.COM tor of Microsoft’s entertainment division, world in the weeks leading up to the release maze of bizarre Web sites about robot rights .--- .- -. ..--- ----- ----- ---.. and a phone number that, when called, played in rural Ohio who helps moderate the Nine pellerhead to follow it. “Our assumption,” reached Wal-Mart and Best Buy, someone not. What matters is that someone—Reznor, up a building on the way out. A building? a message from a woman whose husband had Inch Nails fan forum Echoing the Sound. “We says Sean Stewart, the game’s head writer, would upload it to the BitTorrent sites, which Microsoft, Disney—writes a check. And, for Reznor was awestruck: “These are my kind just died in a suspicious boating accident. had no idea of the scope. That was the most “was never that there’s a continent ofp eople his most avid fans would be carefully moni- now, the checks generally come from com- of people!” Within 24 hours, thousands of people were fun—not knowing what would come next.” who love nothing better than to do spectro- toring.