this is violence

God I love this stuff!

If you’re unfamiliar with it, FX’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is a sitcom revolving 5 essentially mentally ill, anti-social people running a bar in Philadelphia. Always outstanding, the last episode which revolved around merchandising for the bar, raised the topic of advertising in a way that was both genuinely funny, and genuinely interesting.

While maybe not a revolutionary idea, it’s one I don’t feel like we see enough of, and this instance is executed especially well. By avoiding any mention of the either the show or the network, the site effectively serves as a sort of bridge between “show marketing site” and ARG.

What I found brilliant is that it was done completely as a continuation of the show. At one point in the show while seeing the “dicktowel” for the first time, one of the characters says to the other
“we should setup a website for it”
“already did it”
“you did?”
“dicktowel.com”

If you’re a fan of Lost this sort of thing is nothing new, but this was this first time I’ve seen it in a sitcom. Like the Lost sites, or any ARG, dicktowel.com allows fans to become part of the show in a small way. It allows the viewer to stay in the headspace of the show, and actually begin to partake in the storyline by participating in plot elements.

Like I said, the site itself is necessarily NOT revolutionary, but conceptually, the tie-in is elegant and seamless in a way I wish we saw a lot more.

From the sound of it, they’re adding new products to the site too. I can’t wait to get my “dicktowel.com” hat.