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Tropic Thunder – Viral Marketing

by Derek on 08.1.08 in FIlm, Pop Culture, Web with No comments

What do you do when you have a huge multi-million dollar R-rated action comedy packed with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars that is opening in mid August a week after another R-rated comedy of high (pun intended) anticipation? Market the shit out of it via the internet and within media staples of pop culture.

After the appearances of Tropic Thunder’s three leading men (Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr, and Jack Black) on American Idol and the MTV Movie Awards, one could make the argument that Dreamworks covered their viral bases for this movie by hitting a few key demographics within some very large tv audiences. But that wasn’t enough.

Rain Of Madness – a Mockumentary on the making of the fake movie of which Tropic Thunder, the real movie, shares its name. Still with me?

Tugg Speedman – Ben Stiller’s character’s name in Tropic Thunder

Simple Jack – a movie referenced within Tropic Thunder starring Tugg Speedman

Scorcher VI – a movie referenced within Tropic Thunder starring Tugg Speedman

Panda Relocation Foundation – Tugg Speedman’s favorite charity

The Peck Agency – Tugg Speedman’s talent agency

Kirk Lazarus – Robert Downey Jr.’s character’s name in Tropic Thunder

Satan’s Alley – a movie referenced within Tropic Thunder starring Kirk Lazarus

Make Pretty Skin Clinic – the clinic where Kirk Lazarus underwent skin pigment surgery (aka black face)

Jeff Portnoy – Jack Black’s character’s name in Tropic Thunder

Fatties: Fart 2 – a movie referenced within Tropic Thunder

Cody Keith Underwood – Danny McBride’s Character’s name in Tropic Thunder

Booty Sweat – the official energy drink of Brandon T. Jackson’s character, Alpa Chino. It has been mentioned on several blogs that the actual drink is for sale if one were interested in buying it. I believe you can get them at Hot Topics. There is a reference to it on Tropic Thunder’s official site but it lists it as coming soon.

UPDATE:

Alpa Chino’s Website

Simple Jack Site down

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The King Of Kong

by Derek on 02.20.08 in FIlm, Games, Pop Culture with 3 Comments

Video Game Medals

My work has one of those stand-up arcade cabinets with mulitple games in our front lobby. Recently we have been getting more competitive with the high scores for the games. I’m not sure what started it, but after almost a year of very light activity, it now seems like a day doesn’t go by without one of the high scores being topped by someone else in the office.

In the spirit of friendly competition, I decided to make some sort of trophy or medal to award the person who holds the current high score for the various games we have in the office: Donkey Kong, Frogger, Ms. Pac Man, Galaga, and Full Court Frenzy II (mini basketball game). I ended up making some pixel art medallions out of Perler Beads and lanyard string that was inspired from this.

Today I set the new record for Donkey Kong at 45000, nothing compared to what Billy Mitchell or Steve Wiebe were able to do, but it’s enough to take the top prize at my office. We’ve also decided that if someone overtakes the high score for the game that you currently have the high score for, you have to place the “medal” around the neck of the new champion to add insult to injury.

Post Script: I also hold the basketball record with 132 points. Booyah.

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I’mOscar.com

by Derek on 01.11.07 in Pop Culture, Television, Web with 1 Comment

Do you have your own website? Of course you know about goodbyemailbox.com because you are on it right now. But did you know that I also own derekdoi.com? It’s true. It just redirects you to goodbyemailbox.com but I own it and plan on owning it until I can no longer use a computer. Sorry to any other Derek Doi’s out there but the early bird gets the domain.

It would be a crying shame if you were someone like my good friend Cody Collier and some other dude by the same name, who by chance happens to be a gay wrestler, decided to get a website before you. Luckily for the both of them, some other dude named Cody Collier in Colorado put up a fairly safe, yet boring site at that domain. Another friend of mine, Mr. Robin Brown, is too late to buy his name domain which is operated by some real estate lady.

So if you are interested in buying a domain and hosting a website on that domain, there is a really good deal going on at my web hosting provider for the month of January (when did I become a hot deals site?). For $70 you get a domain name, 40GB of online server space, 800GB of monthly bandwidth, unlimited email accounts, a bunch of easy install web apps like the wordpress app that I use to blog with, and many other cool things for one year. You can also pay for two years at the price of $140. I pay $100 for one year so this is definitely a hot deal.

Don’t let some gay wrestler or delusive real estate agent ruin your good name and reputation. Buy your domain today!

Disclaimer: As I have stated above, I happily use PowWeb’s services, and since I do, I am also happy to promote their product by being an affiliate. By doing so, I receive commissions for every account that signs up through the link I have provided above. But even before I was an affiliate, I was recommending this host to all my friends, so I figured I might as well get a little bonus for doing so.
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