Hanso Commercials

[Simon]

From the start of series 2 (in UK) As the adverts Finish.... The Hanso Foundation advert. I phoned the number it provided on the advert very weird lots of options.Can't belive i didnt notice it before, thought it was a bloody star sign advert trying to sell junk! lol look back two 2.01 yes and its there too even though we didnt discover it until what 2.02 ?
Il try and get a picture of it with the phone number, meanwhile check out the website of 'The Hanso Foundation' which i got from the nice lady on the phone ^_^

http://www.thehansofoundation.org/
The Hanso Foundation

[Jack]

What is hanso, if u noticed the video tht locke and eko found was made by Hanso Corp. , thn the commercial aired

[Hobbes]

I Tivo'd tonight's episode and started watching it a little on the late side. So when I got to the Hanso Foundation commercial, I was able to watch it frame by frame. I noticed in one of the frames, in tiny letters, 'paid for by Sprite.' That's the reason that the web site listed at the end of the commercial is 'subLYMONal.com' -- Sprite is supposedly 'lymon' flavored... they paid for the commercial time... and they must have sponsored the sublymonal.com site and possibly the Hanso foundation site as well.

Also, when you call the Hanso foundation telephone number, they've done a good job of creating hold music that sounds like you're listening to a radio station. One of the things playing in the hold music loop is a Sprite commercial.

I have mixed feelings about all this.

On the positive side, the LOST producers and the ABC ad sales people have created an interesting extension of the LOST experience that uses the web and 800-numbers and have gotten an advertiser to pay for some or all of it. So in that sense, I applaud Sprite and their agency for being willing to be a part of something groundbreaking like this.

Also a positive (mostly): Baked into all this is a clever strategy for defeating Tivo and other DVR technologies which allow viewers to skip over commercials. Now that I know that there are going to be fake spots integrated into the LOST commercial breaks which may contain information that will enhance my understanding of the series, I'll be less likely to blithely fast forward through all the commercials in the future. So again, I think Sprite, their agency, the ABC ad sales folks, and the producers are playing with the TV medium and potentially influencing the way we will watch TVand the way advertising will work in the future. That's interesting. I like the idea that this series, which takes risks and pushes the boundaries of the TV medium in its storytelling, is taking risks and pushing boundaries in its behavior as a commercial entity.

On the flip side, though, I think it cheapens the LOST mythology to integrate a real product into the extended system of content (series, fake commercials, web sites, 877-number) which comprises the story world of the show. I'm no expert but I'm sure there are ways of integrating a product and its advertising message with a piece of entertainment content which are more respectful of the content. Not to sound Solomonic, but if Sprite truly cared about LOST, wouldn't it want to avoid sullying the purity of the mythology and story world by creating a conceptual connection to sugar water?

[sleepwalker]

I posted some general info about Hanso/The Lost Experience here, for the people just jumping in.

Originally posted by Hobbes
I think it cheapens the LOST mythology to integrate a real product into the extended system of content

I think I have to agree with you there. I was trying to explain this whole thing to my friend this morning ("this" being the entire Experience) and he thought it was just tacky of the Lost producers to go to such a level. I think it's interesting to an extent, but incorporating real products is just combining the Lostverse with reality.

It's like: "So, this Dharma Initiative is funded/associated with the Hanso Foundation, which is sponsored by Sprite, which is a part of Coca-Cola??"
(I think I just cracked the LOST code. Coke is the ultimate evil, complete with it's mindwarping, manipulative, eugenic properties.)

[durbonator]

Try this. I typed the sublymonal.com address wrong like this: sublymanol.com and got a page about the Dharma Initiative and cloning. Check it out.

[Ruzzi]

Originally posted by sleepwalker@May 11 2006, 01:50 AM
I posted some general info about Hanso/The Lost Experience here, for the people just jumping in.

Woot, thanks. I know about the Hanso foundation doing the Orientation vids, and all, but didn't know there was more into it. And that site sounded confusing so hopefully when I have time I'll check your snazzy guide and have a rad time. :drool:

[sleepwalker]

Try this. I typed the sublymonal.com address wrong like this: sublymanol.com and got a page about the Dharma Initiative and cloning. Check it out.

It's probably just a fake. There's a few of those out there, where people have taken websites with similar names to the official ones.

And here's a thread about the latest Jeep-sponsored commercial.

Originally posted by Ruzzi
Woot, thanks. I know about the Hanso foundation doing the Orientation vids, and all, but didn't know there was more into it. And that site sounded confusing so hopefully when I have time I'll check your snazzy guide and have a rad time

*yay* glad I can be of help =) I just updated it with some new info as well

[Alex]

Also a positive (mostly): Baked into all this is a clever strategy for defeating Tivo and other DVR technologies which allow viewers to skip over commercials. Now that I know that there are going to be fake spots integrated into the LOST commercial breaks which may contain information that will enhance my understanding of the series, I'll be less likely to blithely fast forward through all the commercials in the future.

Since I have DVR, it's like your comment. It can be a good thing or a bad thing, considering how you look at it. You can fast forward through the commercials until you see a Hanso commercial, by chance, and then frame by frame it for any little tidbits of information. Or you can accidentaly forward throught them all.

And in my case, I saw the first season on DVD, second I bought on iTunes. (I started the show at a weird time, so up until now it was messed up.) I'm grateful I get to watch it with DVR for the third season, however.