Cherryflava

Can you twist: Fantasy becomes reality in this morning’s Cape Times

Posted on 18. Jul, 2008 by Jonathan Cherry in Advertising

The story online reads: Bewildered, Ben took today’s carefully folded daily newspaper from him and read the large advertisement….

…and sure enough – that same ad does indeed appear in this morning’s Cape Times. [pictured here]

Certain well-selected letters of the copy have been underlined, which when joined together magically spell out the web address: www.canyoutwist.com [crafty]

The site is a short story competition featuring six of South Africa’s female bloggers. Each week, one story plays out online and ends in a twist in the tale, which also just so happens to play out on the streets of South Africa too.
This week’s newspaper stunt is the conclusion of Jeanne Horak’s story [from Cooksister.com fame] called unsurprisingly; Headlines.

So is South Africa experiencing its first ARG [alternate reality game]?
Just recently a huge US-based alternate reality game was used to promote the upcoming Batman movie, The Dark Knight [See: I believe in Harvey Dent and Why So Serious] and there’s a big global game promoting the Olympic Games [See: The Lost Ring].
Internationally a combination of multiple media platforms are being used as highly interative and emersive marketing campaigns liked with detailed stories and ambient elements which all work.

One to watch…and see how it develops.

More: Can You Twist