Test Subjects Needed UPDATE

t's been a few weeks since the website for the Human Preservation Project, www.testsubjectsneeded.com, launched to instant speculation that it was a part of the marketing campaign for "The Dark Knight Rises." A week after it was launched, it was revealed that 42 Entertainment, the company behind the marketing for "The Dark Knight," was indeed responsible for the Test Subjects Needed campaign - however they claim that they have not yet been tapped to do the marketing for the new Batman film. That lead me to believe one of two things: either they are being coy and they are in fact in charge of the advertising for the film, or they are telling the truth and Test Subjects Needed is for a different client - not Batman.

This week is the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) - a huge event for video games and electronics. Apparently at the event attendees were given two overlaying sheets of plastic that created the image of a flying insect, most likely a wasp. On the back of the sheet of plastic was the URL to the Test Subjects Needed website.

Supposedly people think that this is in fact a marketing campaign for a brand new video game by developer Bungie. Back in 2004 when Halo 2 was about to come out, Bungie hired 42 Entertainment to do a viral marketing campaign called "I Love Bees" to help promote that highly anticipated game. At this years E3, Microsoft announced that Halo 4 will be available for purchase Holiday 2012 - so this could very well be the campaign for that game.

The "I Love Bees" campaign was a smash hit - 250,000 people viewed the ilovebees website when it was launched in August of 2004, with an additional 50,000 people returning to the site each time it was updated. More than three million viewers visited the site during its run, and thousands participated in the game worldwide. It was a huge, award winning success for Bungie and 42 Entertainment, which was evidenced in the warm reception of Halo 2 by the public.

What does all of this mean? It means that Test Subjects Needed is most likely not part of the campaign for "The Dark Knight Rises." And since we now know that the YouTube Channel is probably fan made, that means that the only event that has been an official part of the marketing of this movie is the website that resulted in the mosaic of Bane. So besides that, there has been no marketing for this film. But don't worry - ComicCon is just around the corner. And then, things will really start to pick up steam.