Update: True Blood

In my last post on the viral advertising campaign for HBO's new show, "True Blood," I mentioned their Tru:Blood campaign, BloodCopy blog, direct-mail campaign, and YouTube videos. Well, they didn't stop there. HBO has at least three more web sites related to the new show, and print ads to accompany them.

New York magazine's July 28-August 4 issue contains an ad for "Fellowship of the Sun," bearing the slogan, "Vampires are immoral." It directs you to a web site for the group, whose mission is "To preserve the strength and purity of the human race by preventing vampires from gaining a foothold in our businesses, government and communities." Like the other campaigns, though, the print ad is far superior to the web site itself. While the print ad is striking and certainly makes an impact (especially with its placement at the front of the magazine, before all the content), the web site is poorly designed and cheesy. The appearance of the site is most likely intentional, since the campaign seems all about vampires' rights, the contrast between the fellowship's print ads and web site is noticeable and jarring.

The web site for Fellowship of the Sun

The Fellowship of the Sun site includes information for two more True Blood-related sites: Lovebitten and the American Vampire League. Lovebitten purports to be "the best human/vampire dating site" where you can "find eternal love." The site is more well-designed than the fellowship's web site, which goes along with the HBO campaign's general pro-vampire vibe. Likewise, the American Vampire League's web site is also well-designed, bearing some similarities to the polished web sites of politicians and political parties.

Lovebitten's web site


The American Vampire League's web site

I said in my last post that the campaign in general is quite impressive, which still holds true. However, with so many fictional campaigns to promote one show, HBO's promotion of True Blood becomes a bit overwhelming. After all, it's hard enough to keep up-to-date on all of one's favorite products, web sites, news, and real political issues as it is, without adding in a myriad of products, issues, and services revolving around a TV show. We won't know of the campaign's effectiveness (or lack thereof) until the show premieres in September, though, so for now we'll have to just wait.

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Postscripts: I hope to upload a copy of the fellowship's ad soon. And HBO also has a True Blood comic book.