Funny People Viral Site For Fake Sitcom Dan Koelsch, May 28, 2009May 1, 2010 Comedy films aren’t known for their viral campaigns, so this was a bit of a surprise to me. Funny People, the late summer comedy directed by Judd Apatow, is utilizing the NBC website to promote a fake sitcom that’s part of the film. Funny People includes a lot of characters that are either comedians or actos, and Jason Schwartzman plays an actor who has the lead in the fictional sitcom Yo Teach. We’ll have to “stay tuned” to see if this blossoms into a full viral campaign or if this is just a one-off for the film. It’s hard to imagine them doing much more since even I barely care about it. The web page for the sitcom is really intricate, with a clip from the show, a video interview, photos, and even an ad for the first season DVD. It’s rather realistic, though the premise of the show and the jokes are so cliche, if I had seen this out of context, I might have guessed it was fake. Thanks to Slashfilm for the news and their take. What do you think about this? Should comedies do viral? Is it worth it, especially for a film without much hype? Update: The fake sitcom also has Facebook and YouTube pages. Viral Marketing Funny Peoplejason schwartzmanJudd ApatowYo Teach
Exclusive Crazies Comic Book Review February 17, 2010October 18, 2011Most films that have viral campaigns do so because there is so much backstory worth exploring, yet they cannot waste time (and pacing) in the film to flesh it all out. The Crazies falls into that category, as the events leading up to the outbreak are glossed over in favor… Read More
The Union Needs You: Repo Men Required February 22, 2010If you have been following the Repo Men viral, you’ll know that Wired held an open application for runners to go undercover and evade the Repo Men for one month to win a cash prize of $7,500. The runners have now been selected and there are only 2 days left… Read More
Aliens and Bugs – District 9 Pest Control July 22, 2009So IGN Movies has a nice little video clip of a doctor describing his findings on the non-humans. Check it out after the jump! So it appears that they are starting to have more bug-like qualities, as if their faces weren’t enough. First, we find out that they are solid… Read More
I could see some viral for Anchorman 2 done right, but not something like this. It seems these people just went “hey, lets make a video LOL”. If they put dedication into it then they could pull it off, but not like this.
It’s most likely made for background noise in the movie. Just like the clip of the Adam Sandler baby movie in the trailer. I think there was an article about a month ago about the fake movie posters used in the film too.