Shoulda Known: Giant LEGO Boulder a Fake?

The tricks being used by viral marketing campaigns are getting more and more transparent these days, but I still got fooled occasionally: most recently by the folks at Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners, who may have been revealed as the producers of Giant LEGO Boulder:

What’s embarrassing about this latest failure of my viral marketing detector (the ViralAdVid 3000, patent pending) is that not only did I forget about the previously established relationship between LEGO and LucasArts, I recently acquired the newest Indiana Jones box set, which prominently features a trailer for the new LEGO Indiana Jones game. I thus should have been suspicious when presented with any combination of brown fedoras and plastic blocks, especially in a short with purposefully low production value.

Since the video’s unmasking, whoever responsible has gone on the defensive — Boing Boing has details on the removal of Flickr images and YouTube comments. Folks seem to be upset, but the major point of controversy isn’t so much the fact that the video was produced to promote a video game — it’s the video’s claim that the giant LEGO boulder is made of a million LEGO blocks (which would weigh tons, and cause significant property damage when rolled down a San Francisco hill). When it comes to finding out that something is actually a viral marketing campaign — well, at this point we’re all pretty used to being lied to.

This seems to be an attitude that extends beyond viral marketing to all web video, at this point. After premiering a trailer six months ago, Alrugo Entertainment has finally begun releasing clips of “the lost opus Italian Spiderman,” promising new installments for the next ten weeks.

It’s a fun and well-produced parody, and as I was unfamiliar with the original trailer it actually took me a few minutes to be certain that this wasn’t actually something Quentin Tarantino found at an estate sale and digitized for the good of mankind (it was the fake mustaches that nailed it for me).

But the filmmakers are working hard to preserve the illusion that this film is a real relic, with efforts including an extremely detailed Wikipedia entry that contains both fact and fiction.

But are they actually getting a better response to their work by attempting to fool people into believing it’s real? Or are they just playing into this culture where no one takes credit for their work, and everyone accepts that we’re being lied to, every day?

Maybe it’d be a nice change if we all just told the truth for a little while — even if it sells fewer sunglasses, jeans, or video games.