So, What Did Happen in Piedmont
If you haven’t noticed, there’s a huge banner in my sidebar. It asks “What Happened in Piedmont?” (How could you have missed it?) So, what did happen in Piedmont? Good question.
“What Happened in Piedmont?” is a blog written by a man- Andrew Tobler- who is from Piedmont, Utah. He notices something not quite right about things that are going on in his home town (he’s away at college, I believe). He’s trying to get in touch with people to see what’s happening. There are military personnel surrounding the town, there is no communication coming from or to the town and there are suspicious video feeds being broadcast about what’s going on in this town. Here’s an example of some of the footage that a friend commandeered through a military video feed and sent to him:
It’s all incredibly scary. What’s going on? Are Andrew’s people safe? Is the entire town dead? Andrew is freaking out and only bits and pieces are coming to him. It’s not looking good for the people of Piedmont, Utah and yet the media isn’t all over this. Why? What’s going on?
Go to the bottom and read the “Terms of Service”. Then come back.
The “What Happened in Piedmont?” site is actually a very complex and well-planned marketing gimmick leading up to the Memorial Day premiere of A&E’s long-awaited sci-fi thriller/remake “The Andromeda Strain”. The audio and video that Andrew is providing are actually bits from the movie- perhaps even deleted scenes.
It’s meant to be interactive, so comments are enabled. I have a sneaking suspicion that a few of the commenters there are plants. If you understand that the information on the site is purely fictional, then it’s a lot of fun. You can imagine the worse that could possibly happen, then write it out in the comments. Your idea could then (possibly) get picked up in the game and go viral. Personally, I love this idea, but I also hate it. I’m afraid all of the good movies/shows will be doing this now, it will get out of control, and then it’ll get boring. *sigh* But I digress.
At least one person in the official A&E Network forums thinks that the website is tasteless:
By what I’ve been reading after googleing the “what happened in Piedmont?” ad you keep running, it appears to be an ad for this upcoming movie, etc.
I think it was very unfair of you to “fix” that website to represent an authentic person, events, phone message, etc.
Why would anyone go to that length to promote a tv show? Scaring the daylights out of people? How unfair to the general public. People without access to the internet to search for information to get answers may truly be terrified. I have to say, I am an avid fan of A&E, but I really adhor this advertisement method that has been used for the “Piedmont” upcoming show and the “Andromeda” upcoming movie.
First I have to say that if someone is without access to the Internet (and therefore unable to search for information which would lead them to be terrified) would not happen upon this site. This site is a prime example of why you shouldn’t believe everything you see online.
However, I do see that certain people will link up to this site and send chilling and boldly formatted emails to all of their less-Internet-savvy family members, who will then probably freak out. I can imaging Rush Limbaugh and/or Bill O’Reilly getting many an irate email decrying the absolute quiet of the media pertaining to this issue. This could create a small amount of backlash from the members of the media who are just looking for a reason to be outraged (see the two examples above). I don’t think, though, that there will be mass suicides and people hiding out in their basements because of this (think “War of the Worlds” the radio version).
I’m actually really interested in what’s going on with Andrew Tobler. I’d like to see how he plays out with the plot of the movie. It’s fun. As long as people know it’s a game.
In the interest of full disclosure, I was lucky enough to be offered a pre-release screener of Day One of “The Andromeda Strain”. I happily agreed to do the review and you can read it here.
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So, What Did Happen in Piedmont » Simply Stating……
What happened in Piedmont? That’s been seen a lot recently. I found out and talk in depth about this crazy new marketing strategy and why some people don’t like it. I talk about why they might not like it and what will likely happen when they email t…
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