Horror Fans Share Experiences with Viral Marketing Ahead of 2002’s The Ring

Upcoming psychological horror Smile made waves online this past weekend with an apparent viral marketing stunt. Actors appeared at a number of Major League Baseball games, staring and maniacally into cameras behind home plate to promote the film.

While the stunt certainly garnered attention for Smile, it also prompted fans to share their experiences with viral marketing campaigns for other horror movies.

One film that did this exceptionally well? 2002’s supernatural horror The Ring.

TikTok user astro_nina, also known as Nina Fitzgerald, took to the platform to talk about the “sick” viral marketing campaign behind the film, which was an American remake of J-horror classic Ringu.

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According to Fitzgerald, the “cursed tape” from the film was widely and randomly distributed ahead of The Ring’s release.

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“Their marketing strategy was essentially ‘let’s get this tape viewed by as many people as possible without these people being aware of what this is, sort of raising intrigue,” she says.

One way they achieved this was by airing the tape, which allegedly marks its viewers for death within seven days, as a commercial with no context. The video would air between late-night programming “with no words, no mention of a movie, for like a month…so people would run into it and it would just go on to the next thing, and people would be like, ‘what the f–k is this?'”

Marketing for The Ring Also Included Creepy Websites

Toho Co., Ltd.

Though a late-night TV spot would be creepy enough for most, Fitzgerald says that the studios took it a step further.

“But then also, they would leave the physical VHS tape in different places,” Fitzgerald said, detailing how tapes were placed under seats at movie theaters and on car windshields outside of events. The tapes would play the “cursed” video and direct viewers to a disturbing network of websites, including a site from a murderer who became a victim of the tape.

Though Fitzgerald says that Dreamworks, the studio behind The Ring, scrubbed the sites from the Internet and denied any involvement after the film’s release, users on Reddit were able to track down the archived pages.

Starring Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, Daveigh Chase and directed by Gore Verbinski, The Ring is available to rent or buy on Amazon, Google Play, and YouTube.

You can view the original article HERE.