On my way home from the gym tonight I noticed some new ads in HBO’s brilliant subversive Marketing campaign for True Blood. Two days ago these posters were pristine and I didn’t even read them. Today I’d noticed that another layer of posters had been added to mimic vandalism by anti-vampire integration types. Brilliant. (CLICK ON IMAGE FOR FULL SIZE ADS)
The new posters (and I apologize for the location, they are building an Urban Outfitters-offshoot behind those bills) hold the slogan, “Vampires were people too” along with a link to a site for the American Vampire League. The call to action at the bottom reads, “SUPPORT EQUALITY FOR ALL CITIZENS. SUPPORT THE VAMPIRE RIGHTS AMENDMENT.” This, along with Bloodcopy, The Vampire Blog and the TruBlood beverage ads that started it are making me wonder how much further this campaign will go?
Waiting for the #72 bus after work today, an ad at the bus stop caught my eye. It was an advertisement for Tru:Blood, a “synthetic blood nourishment beverage”. I was taken aback that there might actually be an alcoholic beverage that catered to freaks like me who have an obsession with interest in vampires. With a tagline like “friends don’t let friends drink friends”, I had to get a closer look. Upon further inspection, I saw that the ad was actually part of a marketing campaign for the new HBO show, True Blood.
Alan Ball, “Six Feet Under” creator, returns to HBO with True Blood, a series based on the Southern Vampire Mysteries books by Charlaine Harris. The show details the fictional co-existence of vampires and humans in a small Louisiana town after Japanese-made synthetic blood – “TruBlood” – becomes available for purchase. Anna Paquin stars as Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic waitress at a diner who falls in love with one of the vampires, Bill Compton, who is played by Stephen Moyer-yeah, I don’t know who that is either. But hey-check out this giant piece of man. He plays Liam. Not that I know who that is, but apparently he’s a tattooed, sex-addicted vampire, so consider me interested.
The show’s premiere on September 7th has been prefaced with a viral marketing campaign, based at BloodCopy.com. This has included setting up multiple websites, encoding web addresses into unmarked envelopes mailed to high profile blog writers (I’ll assume my unmarked envelope got lost in the mail), a wikipedia entry collating info, and even a MySpace account (username: “Blood”) complete with video postings.
Author Harris admits that her vampire is a metaphor for minorities, and how they are perceived in society. In the show, vampires have decided to ‘come out of the coffin’ (their terminology, not mine), upon the advent of TruBlood. This is where the show seems be different from other vampire shows and movies-the focus is not on becoming a vampire, but the integration of vampires into everyday society, and the distrust and racism (mortalism?) that inevitably follows.
So…I’m pretty sure the marketing campaign is going to end up being more interesting than the actual show. Although I did learn a new word researching the show: Fangbangers–women who sleep with vampires. Loves it!
Eh, I’ll still watch it, I’m sure. But if it’s super lame, I’m gonna be pissed that it got picked up, and a second season of Moonlight didn’t.
[intr0vert’s Additional images: L.A. - click to enlarge]
I’ve heard that it’s nuts over at HBO right now. Total “reorganization”, firings, and lots of people jumping ship. Looking at SHOwtime’s current lineup of Californication, Dexter, This American Life, Weeds, Bullshit, The L Word and now british export Secret Diary Of A Call Girl, I can see why. With the recent finales of The Sopranos and The Wire, and Big Love MIA, I gotta wonder what HBO is doing on the sidelines? Get into the game so I have something to design!
There are hundreds of Billboards for Weeds and Secret Diary around L.A. but I didn’t even realize that the star of the latter was Billie Piper from the first two seasons of Doctor WHO (2005). Rose Tyler as a classy hooker?…sure I’ll check it out! The first 2 episodes of the british version are online right now, i suggest you do the same.
I still love you HBO. But when are you bringing back Tales from the Crypt?
How can you tell if you are in a cult? Your womens dress like this:
I bet their cult leader always has a white suit on and carries around a Lamb. Thats what I would do if I were a cult leader. And in my country 16 is the legal age for everything… but you have to take classes and earn merit badges before you are allowed to do any of it. Because I’m a Progressive Pragmatist.
As long as we are on the subject, Waco was a mass murder, not a mass suicide. Not because Bill Hicks says so (but thats probably good enough for me). But I’ve seen other videos and a full documentary broadcast on HBO that shows videos of the ATF filling the compound with tear gas that was supposed to force the cult members out (which it didn’t). The compound was then filled with another gas that when mixed with tear gas turned into a flammable nerve gas. Tanks ripped holes in the buildings, infra-red cameras indicated the tanks fired into the house (possibly more tear gas) and the whole fucking place burned to the ground. Massacre, not suicide. Even if its only half true, it’s still murder.
And sure I don’t believe everything just because it’s in a “documentary”. But I totally believe HBO, they know cults. By the way, you are all now on the Government watch list.
I’m gonna sit at the welcome table, gonna sit at the welcome table one of these days…
I don’t know if ALL of these graphics correspond to 80’s identity animations but I figured out about 10-15 of them. Sweet shit. It’s too bad that Justice only DJ’s (from what I can tell they never actually “perform” live.) This is based on friends seeing them play in shitholes like the Viper Room and at soggy festivals. DJ set only? Really? Hey frogs, pick up a keyboard or a robot suit, then we’ll talk. Wheres the Justice in the music world?
Here’s a video that I found with many of the source identities.
Oh man. Its been a really wierd week at work. We have a bunch of big projects coming up and the studios have been pushing back production dates so I haven’t designed anything all week! I always thought it would be an awesome job to do nothing but thats only if I could leave the office and enjoy these beautiful California days!
What I have actually been doing is researching dvd box sets because next week we will be working on concepts for the packaging of The Complete Series of THE WIRE. My brain is fried. I’ve imagined a few really good comps and some questionable ones but what we are basically hoping for is something as brilliant as the packaging for Six Feet Under.
Do you see that brilliant shit!? Its a grave, underground! Astroturf! An Itty Bitty Headstone! DAMN! So yeah, we have some work to be done. We worked on some concepts for the Sopranos Box Set a couple months ago… but we didn’t get the contract. Then again. They wouldn’t listen to my ideas of either just putting the gun from the Title Treatment on the cover (really big) - OR - my favorite idea which was putting the whole thing into a coffin. I guess it was kinda close to the six feet under idea and a little bit like season 2 of Deadwood but then again, the Sopranos came first, and those two ideas seemed to work. So whatever, don’t listen to me.
Pretty soon I will post a short list of the best packaging that i’ve come across in my research this week. In the meanwhile, I will be watching even more of The Wire. Last night I jumped ahead and watched one of the episodes that HASN’T EVEN AIRED YET! It kinda spoiled a couple surprises for me with the 5th season but not too badly. I keep telling myself that this is actually a perk of the job (one of very few). If you haven’t seen this show then you are definitely missing out. Season 5 comes to DVD this summer. I could show you what it looks like, but assumedly HBO would have me killed. And I rather enjoy designing their DVDs. Its actually the one thing that I feel I’ve really achieved. And it kinda makes me feel like I pulled a fast one over on them. Sometimes I feel like I still don’t know shit.
For your HBO viewing amusement, here is Ask A Ninja’s ode to some of the shows that we’ve been working on the designs for:
On my way home from the gym tonight I noticed some new ads in HBO’s brilliant subversive Marketing campaign for True Blood. Two days ago these posters were pristine and I didn’t even read them. Today I’d noticed that another layer of posters had been added to mimic vandalism by anti-vampire integration types. Brilliant. (CLICK ON IMAGE FOR FULL SIZE ADS)
but then again, the Sopranos came first, and those two ideas seemed to work. So whatever, don’t listen to me.
