[arg_discuss] is ARG just a marketing technique to the press?

[Brian Clark]

>1) The no-longer appropriate bundling of marketing and non-art. 


I'm working on a piece regarding this, but sadly the answer I offer up isn't
a simple one as it requires providing an alternate framework for creating
sets from this work. In many ways, the complete misreading of "Blair Witch"
cause-and-effect lead marketers to mistake one (fan building) for the other
(marketing) -- even though those were two different phases, even for "Blair
Witch". There are other historical examples in play, but since Mike is here
and the BW case study is well (mis)known it is as good of a shortcut of that
bigger idea as I can offer up yet.

Fan building and marketing can co-exist, but don't necessarily share the
same value structures. Fandom, though, can't be "faked" -- its appearance by
definition implies success in forming a connection between a creator and an
experiential participant. The disconnect between the implied goals of fan
creation and "mere marketing" are what we're seeing and what we're thinking.


People want some kind of taxonomy to feel safe with the world though, and
none of the taxonomies put forward articulate the question of intent.
Fortunately, it shouldn't have to; it only has to show a diversity of
intent, like any media or artform needs to. What craft it is applied to
(entertainment, news, advertising) is almost beside the point.