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August 06, 2007
Where is Amy Pressman?
Brian points us to another LonelyGirl15 in the making. Or the next-generation Blair Witch Project.
Posters around Hollywood mention a missing girl named Amy Pressman. Her "cousin" has created a MySpace page asking for help to find Amy, who has not returned from a camping trip. Amy's own MySpace page has some "ominous" final blog posts. Many of the comments on both pages express grief over her disappearance.
But as is always the case, online sleuths have traced the domain registration for a parked website called whereisamypressman.com to Hollywood firm Fourth Floor Productions, which claims to build buzz for films through "controversial marketing."
Thanks to citizen detective work, it's pretty clear this is Hollywood fiction.
As for the marketing, is it creative or creepy? What do you think?
Other blogs that reference Where is Amy Pressman?:
» http://stevedragoo.typepad.com/steves_blog/2007/08/todays-notable-.html from Solutions Talk
Today's Notable Quote: Nay, indeed, if you had your eyes, you might fail of the knowing me: it is a wise father that knows his own child. Well, old man, I will tell you news of your son: give me [Read More]
Creepy, and irresponsible to the extent that it could undermine real efforts to find missing people.
Creepy, and a Very Bad Idea. Campaigns like this will train people to ignore *real* "missing" signs. The Boy Who Cried Wolf is an old, old story, and its lesson still applies.
I wonder if the "creatives" behind it still call in false alarms to see the fire trucks?
How nice for the real Amy Pressman(s) to have her name associated with a hoax now. Search results will be clogged with the hoax discussion from now on.
Gross. Fake panic is not cool. Too many people will think this is real. Let me tell you how many times my mom has forwarded me the "don't open the door if you hear a baby crying" hoax.
It's pretty weak that the domain name lookup reveals the production company with such an obvious tag line. Not much of a mystery...
Weak, irresponsible and kind of boring. The ploy is so obvious and heavy handed that I don't think one could even really call it controversial.
Anyway, if you are an Amy Pressman, now would be a good time to quit your job, split on your bills and move to a tropical island. It's going to be difficult for anyone who cares to get help finding you.
I agree with everyone else here so far. This is a terrible way to get buzz for a movie. It's crying wolf all over again and it's very disturbing that a company would go that far. Pretty stupid and downright wrong.
Creepy and thoroughly tasteless in a world where I can't walk down the street without seeing pictures of "Have you seen Madelaine". Satire is one thing but this is lowest common denominator marketing. Not so much Blair Witch as the unmemorable and straight-to-video travesty Blair Witch 2
Definitely creepy. If they asked for donations this would be fraud.
Agreed, creepy. Irresponsible, really. Nothing like taking something resembling a humanitarian PSA and turning it into grotesque PR.
Granted, anyone with a brain should be suspicious of this ad in the first place... but then, wouldn't that make us suspicious of ALL missing persons notices?...
I think it's brilliant. Thanks to all of you people they are getting exactly what they wanted. Congratulations to all of you for playing right into the hands of the culprits. Next time think about what your postings yield in the long run-publicity! And hats off to the guys behind it. I dont know what it is, or even if its a movie, and I dont even care, you've accomplished what you needed to already.
I vote creepy. And sleazy. And scornworthy.
If you think it's so wrong...
STOP TALKING ABOUT IT!!!
You are the ones responsible for giving it it's buzz.
Idiots!
the worst of it is that by even voting it as creepy, sleazy, we are contributing to the campaign. but I agree with you all. at least it was outted by a good citizen journalist.
Definitely creepy, and, BTW, it should be discussed.
By exposing the fraud, the company may receive buzz, but at least it's negative.
Without exposing this creepy, sleazy attempt at buzz marketing, the company might actually receive a positive impact for its cause. Now that would be tragic.
I agree with everyone else here so far. If they asked for donations this would be fraud.
I agree it should be discussed, the public response to things like this has become absurd, but as I said before I think this idea is great because you wouldn't be discussing it without them. I think the majority of people who have ever put anything out there for the public to fight over have been sleazy. And I only hope you people are looking for real missing people right after you posted on this page! Otherwise what right do you have to say any of this!
PUBLICITY STUNT!
but kind of creepy when you think about all the people who are really missing.
didn't any of you see the same thing done for the movie The Grudge 2? not my kind of movie, but they took this missing person ghost story pretty far. start at the beginning in march and see how they teed it up, it's that much more dramatic when the kid goes missing:
http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/thegrudge2/blog/
sorry for entering the conversation late, only saw this blog for the first time today :)
