No joke, I just received my obituary in the mail today at the office. Apparently, I died while surfing at Rockaway on Monday, July 6th. That’s news to me. I’ve never surfed Rockaway.
The contents of this rusty jar are quite puzzling and I was met with the following note.
This jar holds a story – the story of a single tragic incident that needs to be unlocked. Dive in, investigate the evidence and discover what lies beneath the surface.
Inside the jar I found the following contents: a rusty boat key attached to a floatie, a large shark tooth wired to a metal plate with the following URL: www.frenziedwaters.com and a pair of bloodied bathing suit bottoms. A large “Warning” sign was also enclosed with the following phone number: 386-675-0342. Oh, and my obituary.
Photo Gallery by Picturesurf
Peter Ha, News Editor for CrunchGear, the reputable subsidiary of TechCrunch.com, fell victim to a fatal shark attack on Monday, July 6th, while surfing off a beach in Rockaway Park. Ha, the up-and-coming technology writer was on a fast-paced track to success, already having been published in Surfing Magazine, Vibe, Men’s Journal, Men.Style.com and Wired.com. His body is being flown home to Oregon for funeral services on Thursday, July 9th.
After signing into FrenziedWaters.com via Facebook Connect, the stream of images and video about my death are populated with various newspaper articles, farewell notes from friends, etc. Very clever, Discovery.
If you haven’t figured it out by now, it’s a rather clever- albeit morbid- marketing campaign for Discovery Channel’s Shark Week that starts on August 2nd. But what exactly is happening tomorrow? I guess we’ll wait and see.
Oh that’s so fucked in the head.
Is that even legal? I would think not.
Wow. That is elaborate. I am impressed.
Impressed by the detail but shocked by their idea of marketing… It did work however… you did write about Shark Week…
I would just be scared the wrong person would see it and believe it.
But everyone loves Shark Week! Don’t they get a lot of press?
The “reputable subsidiary” part should have tipped you off it was a fake. :)
jerk
I said the same thing in the chat room, Mr. Screen Sleuth. Well played.
Wahoo, Shark Week is back! Glad you wrote about it, I haven’t tuned into Discovery in months and had no idea.
i just went to site and did it and thought it was cool and really creepy. but didn’t see anything about shark week anywhere. how do you know this is shark week and not a movie?
“ Live every week like it is shark week. ” – 30 Rock
i love to see original marketing ideas like this.
too bad peter had to be eaten though..
It’s because you don’t like the blackberry storm Peter. This is your future Peter Ha!
Did anyone actually call the number to see what it is?