Friday, October 12, 2007

Are Virtual Worlds crossing the Marketing Line?

It’s funny, about one year ago I heard about Second Life. I thought to myself what the heck is Second Life? I don’t understand. Well basically Second Life is a virtual world where you can create a different life or alter ego with an avatar. Second life is SIMS gone wild; it is a 3-D world where you can create your own alter ego and invent your own experiences. Currently the site entertains over 9,114,494 residents. As a resident you can buy and sell items, meet new people and essentially create a life all your own to be shared with many people you do not event know.

Since the development of Second Life many advertisers have made appearances in this virtual world, such as Coca-Cola
, Sony BMG Music Entertainment , Sun Microsystems, Nissan, Toyota, Starwood Hotels and Intercontinental Hotels.

New to the lineup on the Second Life kick is CBS. Yes I said CBS. The show CSI is making a debut on Second Life. Here is the snippet:

The episode of CSI is scheduled for Oct. 24, Taylor, played by Gary Sinise , finds himself entering the computer-based virtual world known as Second Life, walking (and sometimes flying) around three-dimensional, animated Manhattan landmarks, recreated by a technique called machinima, and pursuing not a suspect but an avatar.

CSI and Second Life?
All I can say is -- WHAT?? You cannot be serious!! TV is switching over to interactive marketing in a scary way. I know I am going to be watching that episode if anything just to see how they cross television with the idea of social media. Can it get any crazier?

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