McDonald's - can you believe this, yes McDonald's is doing Dark Marketing. Company that usually limits their marketing efforts to cheap plastic action figure type toys produced for 2 cents a piece somewhere in the South Pacific, is now doing Dark Marketing.
What's even better is the fact that they are doing it quite well. Maybe not real well, but well enough. Unlike the pathetic efforts by Sony (fake tourist: they paid people on the street to pretend that they are tourists and asked bypassing strangers to take their picture with a Sony camera) and Skype (fake enthusiast: they paid people in London Tube to pretend to love the Skype voip service and to participate in loud dialogs witnessed by other travelers). Pathetic and borderline unethical efforts.
No, McDonald's has taken a refreshingly honest and laid-back approach - a branded ARG. I love ARG's. They are creative, mysterious and often combine all possible ways of communication. The Lost Ring has been going on for quite a while now and is counting down to the Olympics. McDonald's has demonstrated restraint and has not plastered the whole experience with their Golden Arches Logo. Sure you will see them, but it's kinda like a post-roll. Not in your face at all and hiring Jane McGonigal as the designer is working out great. The game is great and the Corporation with big money is not ruining everything. How unusual, how unbelievable.
In my opinion the most surprising thing about The Lost Ring is the person with enormous cojones. The person who came up with the idea in the first place and then made the pitch to one of the most conservative and easily startled corporations in the whole wide world. I love you.
P.S. Then again I just recently fell in love with Julia Allison, so don't take it too seriously.
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