New In Viral Marketing: What Is 2ndmass?

A new viral marketing campaign has hit the web, ticking through a countdown and threatening an invasion.

2ndmass, a new site that displays nothing but a message taped to a window: “Went to fight! Survival is our destiny” What does it mean? Who knows. But, if you scroll over the “G” in “fight,” a countdown pops up on the top of the screen. Hover over the “V” in “survival” and a low-quality video of a frantic man packing and mumbling about not letting “those things kill us all” plays until an explosion seemingly kills the feed.

(More on Techland: Bummed Your Shows Are Over? Read Techland’s Summer TV Guide)

I was confused and intrigued. The coordinates referenced on the site point straight to San Diego, so a Comic-Con reveal seems likely. But who’s behind it? ComingSoon.net wrote that they received a package containg a camera with a clip featuring the same man as the first, this time talking about the “whole world going dark.” Even more interesting was the return address, which matched the address for Turner Entertainment. Coming Soon speculates the whole thing is tied to Turner’s new Steven Spielberg-produced series Falling Skies, about an unlikely resistance group battling an alien invasion starring ER‘s Noah Wyle.

Here’s the official description:

In Falling Skies, Wyle stars as a former college professor who becomes the leader of a group of soldiers and civilians struggling against an occupying alien force. Bloodgood co-stars as Anne Glass, a therapist who works with the surviving children to help them cope with the traumatic situation. The series also stars Drew Roy (Lincoln Heights) as Hal and Maxim Knight (Brothers & Sisters) as Matt, Tom’s two sons; and Seychelle Gabriel (Weeds) as Lourdes, an orphaned teenager who helps run the group’s commissary. Will Patton (Armageddon, TNT’s Into the West) plays a fierce leader of the resistance.

Well, this certainly explains 2ndmass. During the Revolutionary War (the last time we were occupied), the 2nd Massachusetts Regiment was instrumental in kicking some serious British arse. Though the series won’t premiere on TNT until summer 2011, a panel is scheduled for this year’s Comic-Con on Friday, July 23. (4:45 p.m. – 5:45 p.m. (PT) in Room 6A) (More on Techland: Our Guide To Having A Good Time At Comic Con)

Trying to Be Optimistic About a Google Music-Streaming System

The Wall Street Journal’s Amir Efrati and Ethan Smith are reporting that Google is working on a consumer-electronics system designed to stream music–and, eventually, maybe video and other media–around the home. Their story doesn’t have much in the way of detail, but does say that Google’s brainchild might be akin to a lower-cost version of Sonos’s excellent-but-pricey music-streaming products. Absent more details, there are several ways to respond to this sketchy bit of news.

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I think these kinds of viral teasers are getting tiresome. Back when there was a tease for Halo 2 it wasn’t so trite but now it seems as if everyone is trying to do this. Maybe I’d be more interested if I knew what it was leading up to (enjoying the lead up to something I’m kind of interested in) rather than following all the clues and hoping that it really is something cool.