Considering the sorry state of our country's health care, it could be viewed as unseemly to make a movie about repossessing artificial organs from folks who can't pay for them. Either that, or it's totally prescient. Universal Pictures is launching just such a flick,
Repo Men, with an outdoor/mobile campaign and an alternate reality game intended to draw people into a world where those pricey organ transplants can be traced via bar code. Information about the action thriller is dispersed in the same way. Scan an iPhone over the billboards and bus shelters for
Repo Man in the top 15 markets and you'll see sales brochures hawking the latest in artificial tickers and the like. Other links take you to Web sites about The Union, the shadowy corporation that loans the money and then reclaims the property when various poor bastards default on their payments. Some mock commercials for mechanical organs are instant creepy classics, with a spot for a new liver featuring the tagline, "We encourage you to drink irresponsibly." Studios have been using interactive ads for some time, but rarely do they fit so seamlessly with a movie's theme. Universal worked with 360i and The Visionaire Group on the campaign, which also features a real-world game where players win cash for finding "fugitives" on the lam from The Union.
Repo Men, starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker, opens March 19.
—Posted by T.L. Stanley
