Tag: conspiracy

Mir-12: Viral Marketing for Singularity?

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Once again, YouTube has led to a rabbit hole that seems to go deeper and deeper with each day. A video was uploaded to the site, supposedly a Russian news clip reporting on an assassination attempt on a scientist, as well as the the subsequent shooting of the would-be killer. The newscast points viewers towards an organization named Mir-12, which is believed to be behind the attack. Upon visiting the Mir-12 website, players discovered a blog documenting the actions of Mir-12, a “global community” attempting to uncover a Russian conspiracy concerning an island where Soviet weapons testing took place during the height of World War II.

Mir-12’s founder, an American student, roundly denied any knowledge of the scientist prior to January 16th, the date of the incident documented in the video, and states that the assassin, Natasha Norvikov, was nothing more than a friend helping to uncover the truth behind the mysterious island and the Russian government cover-up. Researching Natasha, players have found more information on the active young woman who had accounts on Flickr and Facebook. Mir-12’s most recent update includes a link to Natasha’s photography work, also discovered and submitted to the site by players.

So, what does it all mean? As one intrepid blogger has already uncovered, Mir-12 seems to be a viral marketing campaign for the upcoming Activision video game Singularity. Some research into Mir-12’s Twitter account shows that certain followers of the Mir-12 Twitter-feed were employees of the DDB Ad Agency, and DDB has worked with Activision in the past. This discovery, coupled with the Singularity trailers, make the coincidences in plot seem much less… coincidental.
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A Top Secret Conspiracy for Monsters vs. Aliens

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Conspiracy theorists are often a depressing lot, decrying the end of the world at the hands of a cabal of aliens, monsters, and the Illuminati. Thus, it was refreshing to receive an email from Jeffrey Freedman, internet reporter and administrator for TopSecretConspiracy, who somehow manages to believe every scatterbrained theory he hears while retaining a sense of humor. Of course, it helps that he’s promoting the new Dreamworks animated sci-fi comedy Monsters vs Aliens in the process.

According to Freedman, “There is a massive conspiracy at work being engineered from the media, the NWO, the Illuminati, genetic laboratories, corporations, public utilities, crossword puzzle writers, and various recreational senior activities groups. They want us to be passive and ignore the looming extraterrestrial threat in our midst. They want us to fall asleep at the wheel of our tractor trailer truck of truth and derail on the freeway of propaganda.”

TopSecretConspiracy.com is Freedman’s attempt to help people learn the truth, but he doesn’t stop there. In Episode 7 of “Expose the Truth”, Freedman infiltrated WorldCon 2008 to discuss a government and conspiracy to disguise the truth of the alien threat as “science fiction” stories through a comedic series of interviews with convention attendees. The previous six episodes are conspicuously absent from the website, no doubt due to those troublesome recreational senior activities groups.

io9 reports that a number of book covers filmed in “Expose the Truth” include the characters Bob, Dr Cockroach PhD, and Ginormica from the upcoming Dreamworks film Monsters vs Aliens, scheduled for wide release March 27, 2009. Furthermore, the website’s Terms of Use state that the website is made available by Pacific Data Images, Inc., a computer animation production company owned by DreamWorks SKG.

Interaction is currently limited to contacting Mr. Freedman via twitter or email with evidence of the massive conspiracy encompassing practically every aspect of our lives: however, once players prove their loyalty, they can become part of a “trusted cabal of citizen journalists.”