New “Lost” Marketing Campaign Is So Damn Viral, It Forgets To Market “Lost”

With the seemingly endless wait for new Lost episodes nearing a merciful end, ABC has really stepped up its viral marketing campaign for the show, unleashing these super-subtle billboards for Oceanic Airlines that look so much like actual advertisements, there’s no way they could possibly affect anyone who’s not already very familiar with the show:



In addition to the billboards (which are only located in cities from which the show’s imaginary characters hail), the campaign includes a website for Oceanic Air, which just displays a couple general grandiose slogans that pretty much just sound like actual Airline slogans.

Are we at the point now where viral marketing campaigns not only don’t even mention the thing they’re advertising, but link to websites that also do not mention the thing they’re advertising?Forget the passe days of “Whatisthematrix.com” and “Mortal Monday” — within a year, ads for shows are just going to say “HEY EVERYONE! STUFF!!!!!” with a link to www.things.com, which ends up just being a broken link.

Maybe to amp up their efforts a little more, ABC should actually form an Oceanic Airlines, sell actual tickets, actually fly people back and forth to Sydney, then expand and turn it into a regular, profitable business that operates regardless of when new episodes of the show are scheduled to come out. Or maybe that’s been their plan all along?