Ditch The Tech - Dollhouse - Whedonesque.com

Creepy. I <3 viral marketing.

That is. So. Badass.

FruityOatySaladbar | November 10, 09:33 CET

That is kinda creepy but still cool, love the reflections in the screen, didn't notice them first time around!
*looks over shoulder...

allthattwiggery | November 10, 09:44 CET

Wicked. That darn tech causing the apocalypse! I'm definitely going to print those and post them around. I'm in Canada but all promotion helps!

JAYROCK | November 10, 09:45 CET

You click the link below the video and it gives a PDF poster to print and post everywhere...multimedia!

stevekaw | November 10, 09:45 CET

Looked at the page source and:

Civilization will fall apart in the year 2019. The Rossum Corporation is responsible. It is already beginning at the L.A. Dollhouse right now. Don't let them wipe the future!

meta name="keywords" content="Rossum, evil, future, 2019, L.A. Dollhouse, end of the world, don't pick up the phone, ditch the tech, ditchthetech, wipe, brain, mind, soul"

[ edited by JAYROCK on 2009-11-10 09:46 ]

JAYROCK | November 10, 09:46 CET

Very shiny! Thanks for the link.

Risch22 | November 10, 09:46 CET

That's awesome.

dispatch | November 10, 09:52 CET

I also found this down on the left side of my browser where it said "transferring data from..."

http://www.wipethefuture.com/

Only says "SOON" right now. I wonder what'll go up eventually.

Arison | November 10, 09:59 CET

Oooh, nice find Arison. This is so fun and I'm very appreciative we get this to entertain ourselves with while Dollhouse is on hiatus.

JAYROCK | November 10, 10:05 CET

Gods, I love viral marketing!
And I am now even more terrified of picking up the phone.

(And,that's a great first post, Dev!!!)

JotheCat | November 10, 10:24 CET

Oh wow, this is all so cool. And creepy. And snaps for all the people making this stuff. Dollhouse fans are ace.

sammy_jai | November 10, 10:29 CET

That was just the thing to cheer me up in the middle of my writing-papers-all-night blues.

iluvmusicals | November 10, 10:30 CET

I was very startled. That was creepy and cool, indeed.

dottikin | November 10, 10:31 CET

I love that Whedon shows inspire the very best of cerebral fandom! Gonna print out my posters!

hopitopia | November 10, 10:40 CET

I ripped the video from Ditch the Tech, the video was saved as "last" and the site it leaves on my FireFox downloader is http://www.onlyfordemo.com.

I'm sure neither are of any use but thought I'd throw it out there anyway.

JAYROCK | November 10, 10:56 CET

Really cool and effective stuff.

Man, if the show had just been marketed this way from the beginning. This show has so much potential to have a large fanbase if it'd just be allowed to grow.

[ edited by Rhodey on 2009-11-10 10:57 ]

Rhodey | November 10, 10:57 CET

This is great! What will happen next?

Thank you to those who put a huge amount of time, effort and thought into this!

eyes of the world | November 10, 11:09 CET

The Rossum side of the story has always been one of the strongest points of the show, sad that the main Fox marketing plan relies on "Hey, is Eliza in tights with guns", which barely registers.

Wonder how many cooler things they could've invested on if they haven't wasted money with that weird Virtual Doll thingie.

Update - to correct one of the worst written paragraphs ever. Really.

[ edited by Numfar PTB on 2009-11-10 11:47 ]

Numfar PTB | November 10, 11:24 CET

Numfar PTB, just thinking about how much better a "pseudo-viral" campaign would've worked on FOX. Of course it might've had to wait til season 2 and assume people had watched Epitaph One, but it might have gotten more people into the show on an actual premise instead of made up "Its a T and A show!" spots.

hopitopia | November 10, 11:29 CET

not that it's NOT a T and A show, at times. *ahem*

hopitopia | November 10, 11:30 CET

extremely creepy.

[ edited by The Do That Girl on 2009-11-10 11:50 ]

The Do That Girl | November 10, 11:51 CET

Yes, Dollhouse is also a "T and A" show occasionally, the problem is selling as mostly so. I think people that might have browsed through Dollhouse due that type of promotion, and actually expecting that type of show, must have been very disappointed by how much more "cerebral" it turned out to be.

But, the fact that Fox never showed Epitaph One does hurt a bit into the efficiency of these viral promotions (despite it being really really cool). Unless you've seen the DVD extras (rental or sale) or you're in International Markets that saw the episode on TV (mostly Cable, not network, however extremely vocal audience) which doesn't affect US direct market (not directly at least), I wonder about the reach of these actions.

Numfar PTB | November 10, 12:10 CET

Dollhouse DID have a viral marketing campaign. Remember the whole interactive thingie with the girl trapped in a room with the wiping chair and stuff? No? Well, there you go.

Septimus | November 10, 12:53 CET

Gadzooks! That's intriguingly disturbing. Or disturbingly intriguing.

Pointy | November 10, 13:05 CET

Septimus it's 4am where I live so I'm having trouble reading how many layers of sarcasm are there. ;) Numfar PTB, yes, we're making the same point, I think. The T&A isn't mostly my thing, but of necessity that sells. The viral campaign would have gotten people more in tune with what the show actually IS, AND the 15 yr old boys....

hopitopia | November 10, 13:08 CET

it's intributingly distringing.

maz | November 10, 13:29 CET

Creeeeeeepy. This kinda stuff in addition to the Why I Watch site and videos seriously makes me wonder why more people aren't tuning into Dollhouse if, for no other reason, out of sheer curiosity.

jiggyfly | November 10, 13:47 CET

I love this kind of viral marketing. My first experience with it was when they had the ilovebees website for the Halo 2 release. Just so much fun.

LaneMeyer | November 10, 14:11 CET

It's all very apocalypse-y and that resonates with an audience much more than what the Dollhouse currently is, I think. If the show was more like what these viral videos and Epitaph One was, we might have had a bigger hit on our hands. However, I do love Dollhouse the way it is, I can't see myself getting as upset as I did in "Belonging" to anything set during The Storm. Obviously, I'm going to be proven wrong since this is Joss and he knows how to get my heart pumping like no one else.

Jaymii | November 10, 14:23 CET

The "ditch the tech" clip is also on youtube - don't know how many views it needs before it starts being automatically suggested to other viewtube members - but so far it's only had 15 hits - if we hit it hard will that increase visibility?

viewingfigures | November 10, 15:20 CET

The video (if you can't see it on ditchthetech.com like me) is here on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wkf0Uyn9HlY

Pantaryl | November 10, 17:11 CET

Wow. Extremely creepy. I love it.

nuccbko | November 10, 17:25 CET

Thanks for posting to you tube. I couldn't get the website to load at all.

Whisper | November 10, 17:27 CET

All I saw on the website was a black background with a link to the pdf flier.

Wonder why I didn't get this site in an email (I emailed the Rossum PR address). Oh well, thanks for posting it! I'll need to check out the video on youtube later (not at work).

AnotherFireflyfan | November 10, 17:56 CET

I got the black background too... but at first I interpreted it as a clever commentary on ditching tech.

And having watched the youtube... wah. That was creepy indeed.

ManEnoughToAdmitIt | November 10, 18:32 CET

Is the anti-phone/tech poster just part of the fun of the site, or is it also intended to be a call to arms for fans, part of the whole "Save Dollhouse" campaign related to Why I Watch or some other effort ?

'Cause unless a whole lot more is being added to DitchTheTech.com, I dunno if it'd be worth printing off the posters and plastering them everywhere. Although I might print one off just for the novelty of it, and because it speaks to my love-hate relationship with cell phones.

Kris | November 10, 19:05 CET

At first I was annoyed I couldn't watch it on my iPhone because it's Flash and despite there being ways to code video for almost everyone to be able to see it.

Then I realized, intentional or not, not being able to see the video on a phone might me thematically appropriate. (Although maybe people on phones are the ones who need the warning the most?)

The One True b!X | November 10, 19:13 CET

Wow. Super creepy cool. Love it.

iwantthefireback64 | November 10, 19:26 CET

Speaking of creepy, the text on the "Wipe the Future" site now reads: ROSSUM KNOWS THAT YOU KNOW.

Eep!

Serefina716 | November 10, 19:30 CET

The WipeTheFuture site now says "Rossum knows that you know"...and that's it. It's yep, once again, creepy.

didifallasleep | November 10, 19:31 CET

I got the black background at first, as well. But I just went back and saw the video. Wicked creepy. I love it!

JTown | November 10, 19:32 CET

I think the WipeTheFuture site might be even creepier. Just that one line... chills!

JTown | November 10, 19:34 CET

Very cool. I am loving these fan-made viral marketing sites! Fox sucks at marketing. Even the successful House viral marketing campaign was Hugh Laurie's idea - right down to the drawing of the snakes on a cane.

ShanshuBugaboo | November 10, 20:28 CET

But now, we know they know we know. That means we can take steps to prevent this from happening!

crazygolfa | November 10, 21:42 CET

Of course Rossum knows I know. And I know that they know that I know. And they know that I know that they...

I love viral campaigns.

E-Rawk | November 10, 21:58 CET

The new text on WipeTheFuture reminds me of Topher's "I know what I know." And Rossum knows too!

Arison | November 10, 22:16 CET

Anyone else hoping for the Rossum site to get "hacked" like Lost did a few years ago?

Bt06 | November 10, 22:39 CET

Creepy viral marketing = awesome.

sarahb | November 11, 00:05 CET

Now, if FOX would just get their heads out of...orifices they shouldn't be in (I'm talking their marketing department here. They do have one of those, yes?) and plastered Dollhouse ALL OVER TVGuide.com like ABC did with V folks might actually find out about the show.

I was just on TVGuide.com - there were four ads for V. All of Morena. The one above my "What's on" listing graph had the lines "We come in peace. Always" scrolling up on the side. The one below was just her face. To the left was her face w/alien eyes, and to the right was her face regularly. Oh, and there was also another one way off to the side that said "V - Tonight on ABC."

Plus they aired a commercial for V with every.single.ad break on "Dancing With the Stars" last night.

I just don't know how much attention this kind of viral marketing is going to attract to the show. If someone hadn't seen the link here, would they likely be able to stumble across it doing a random search? And...what would make it turn up in Google?

ShadowQuest | November 11, 01:14 CET

Well, both ditchthetech.com and wipethefuture.com come in on top when I search in Google. So either being linked to from here has been a successful google-bombing, or someone made sure they would be the first results up.

Arison | November 11, 06:42 CET

Yeah, but...what did you search for, Arison? "ditchthetech" or "Rossum is evil"? 'cause, yeah, those make the sites turn up, but...we already know those phrases. I'm saying how would someone outside the fandom, unfamiliar with this site, or Dollhouse, come across them?

Is the purpose of these sites to entertain us, the already-fans, or to intrigue someone into watching the show for the first time?

ShadowQuest | November 11, 06:54 CET

Well these links have provided me much fun on Facebook.

I uploaded the Rossum Advert with the tagline "Intruiging - read closely - "toddler dementia" - then a couple of hours later uploaded the ditchthetech link and after another pause the wipethefuture link. Most of my friends worked out it was viral advertising but they all thought it effectively scary. Job done. A few more fans generated.

BTW - my fave part in the Rossum Advert is where they declare they want to understand every brain by disecting it.

viewingfigures | November 11, 12:04 CET

Am I the only one who thinks ditch the tech would make a good Twitter hashtag? Like: "Ah my [insert tech here] is a piece of crap [or desired description of substandard performance]! #ditchthetech"

Xantastic1316 | November 11, 14:47 CET

There is some interesting and potentially spoilery stuff brought up about Rossum from the information gathered on Rossum's site in the comments of this article.

JAYROCK | November 11, 15:52 CET

So the upshot here is that some folks *really* liked Stephen King's "Cell"?

KingofCretins | November 11, 17:11 CET

Today wipethefuture.com reads: "THEY WILL BE CALLING."

MikeATL | November 11, 19:04 CET

Wipethefuture.com says "we're not done."

Bt06 | November 12, 01:30 CET

Now wipethefuture.com says "FIND HER! HURRY!" with an interesting login animation.

MikeATL | November 13, 20:13 CET

And the HTML on ditchthetech.com, where there's a new video, points to @AlexfromPR on Twitter.

The One True b!X | November 13, 20:27 CET

November 10 2009