thinkin large
I mentioned in the last post that we went to see Wall-E. I have to say I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected (and my expectations weren't low because its animated, I normally like that stuff. Its just that, with the exception of Lion King and Nemo, Disney usually disappoints when it comes to animated movies anymore.) This was no Lion King, but it didn't disappoint. Probably what was most impressive to me was how, within the first few minutes of the film, they established the lead character - a robot who doesn't speak - as a sympathetic and emotional character. On another note, the next day I accidentally ran across the website for Buy N Large - the fictional discount store conglomerate that has essentially taken over the earth in the movie. There is nothing in the film that is a call to action to look for it - and that makes me like the site even more. They didn't have to have it. But they invested the time and effort to go that one step farther. Its a perfect representation of what a site like that often is - complete with tacky reflective logo, cheesy animations and pages of things like core values, press releases, and even a news site. Thats a fair amount of depth for a fake website. Surprisingly, the only revenue generating feature is the store, which takes you to a zazzle website. I'm surprised that Disney incorporated a non-Disney entity into one of their own sites, but it worked on me. I bought something. Sites like these are an important part of building depth with fan bases - as the Oceanic Airlines site proved for fans of the tv show 'Lost'. Whether there is direct value to be gained is something still being figured out, but I still enjoy that they went to that level when they didn't have to.