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Client: Paramount Vantage
Creative Agency: "Get Loose"/e-card: Special Ops Media; website: Watson DG

You are chained to a radiator. The dark and dingy room is cluttered with different objects you have to use to "Get Loose." You are Rae (Christina Ricci), and as such, you are able to flip open books and unlock cabinets in hopes of finding something that will help you escape from Lazarus' (Samuel L. Jackson) living room.

The 3D flash-rendered room allows you free movement (or as much give as the chain allows) to explore, as you pick up different objects to add to your inventory. The puzzle is elaborate, requiring several progressions to get to each step towards escape. A gentle, twangy guitar riff plays in the background, only interrupted when you try to turn on the television or radio, or if you decide to play the guitar lying against the wall. It's dark, dangerous and you have to use your wits to make a break for freedom.

The "Get Loose" game is accompanied by a customizeable e-card, "Chain or Be Chained," in this interactive marketing campaign for the upcoming film, "Black Snake Moan."

Paramount Pictures and Special Ops Media created the campaign with hopes to stay true to the film while engaging its potential audience. Jason Klein, SOM's president and co-CEO said, "'Black Snake Moan' is the perfect inspiration for the types of irreverent content and marketing initiatives that often thrive online. We think this project demonstrates our deep commitment to creating and executing interactive campaigns that not only are addictive on their own, but also serve the marketing missions of the studios."
-- Krisserin Canary, associate editor, iMediaConnection

Casting Samuel L. Jackson in anything is usually box office gold. The movie-going youth of America have a thing for him, (although I didn't like him as a Jedi Knight). Add the word "snake" to the title of a Jackson film and you're likely in for some fun. Throw in tabloid regular Justin Timberlake and Christina Ricci, chained and in her underwear, and your audience just got much bigger.

Watson DG goes to work on the moviegoer with everything you'd expect from a movie website, including the obligatory AIM buddy icons, screensavers, trailers, film clips and a music video. Customize your MySpace with a "Black Snake Moan" skin! That's got to be a first, and I have to hand it to SOM for not going with the "Make 'Black Snake Moan' your friend on MySpace" angle. Another bonus, no ringtones! Special Ops Media's Valentine's Day Card feature is clever and naughty, although I found the game of getting free from Jackson's living room to be a little tedious and I didn't have the patience to figure out how to escape. I also noted that there is no way to reach the game from the main site. Perhaps it's a secret "viral only" thing on the part of Special Ops. If so, nice touch.
 
The site is bluesy, like the theme of the film, and a touch on the funny/smart side, a trademark of any Jackson project. Nymphomaniacs, chains, the hot South, Samuel L. Jackson in another good role and Christina Ricci in her underwear all make a pretty good recipe for box office success.  
-- Dave Wilkie, VP, creative, Kinetic Results, and author of the advertising blog Where's My Jetpack?

I've been looking forward to this movie since I saw the previews the other day. I pretty much have to see anything by Samuel L. Jackson (except Snakes on a Plane-- I just couldn't do it).

The eCard was pretty straightforward and worked smoothly. I really liked the upload image tool, as it allowed me to manipulate the image for positioning, size (zoom) and rotation (trying to get my standard bio headshot onto Christina Ricci's body-- I wouldn't make a very pretty girl, that's for sure). I thought the font and background that was used in filling in my name and email address was a little hard to see, as it was both small and the font color blended in with the background a bit much on my laptop monitor.

I moved over to the game and it took me just a moment to get the hang of navigating around the room and I was off and running. Overall the game was fun, it took me just long enough for it to be entertaining, and gave me some little tidbits on the movie, without me getting bored or feeling like I was cheating the company out of too much time playing a game. I particularly enjoyed the ending, as they "pulled" me back into the movie with the short ending clip.

Once the game was complete, as is expected, they asked me to send the game link onto a friend. This time, they really missed the mark on the font issue. I pretty much had to guess what characters I was typing and had to hope I was putting in my friend's email correctly, as the funky font and grayish color used was impossible to read. When I hit the submit button, I wasn't really sure if I was successful until I saw a small "thank you" had appeared right above the form-- it would have been nice to actually get a confirmation screen.

Overall, a nice job on the creative, but a few small details got left at the end that would have made it much more powerful from a viral standpoint. Those form submission items may just be the place where they lose ground on driving traffic.
-- Keith D. Pape, senior partner/ vice president, FrontGate Creative