Among the film's confirmed promotional partners are confectioner Hershey's, handset maker Nokia, breakfast giant General Mills, clothier Giorgio Armani, Domino's Pizza and even a Time Warner rival, Comcast, the nation's largest cable company.
Several of those promotional partners have been used in viral marketing campaigns that prominently feature the Joker -- but mainly in the service of hyping the picture and burnishing their brands rather than directly selling their products.
For example, Nokia phones were an integral if subtle part of the "Dark Knight" viral-marketing campaign conducted for Warner by 42 Entertainment, a Pasadena, Calif.-based company that specializes in alternative-reality games for motion pictures.
"Dark Knight" fans who went to
whysoserious.com in December could find themselves invited to a treasure hunt. Instructions then directed them to 35 bakeries in 25 cities across the nation. After asking for an order left for "Robin Banks" (the Joker's favorite activity), they received a cake with a Nokia cellphone in it, which was used to send them more clues, prizes and, of course, garner scads of local media attention.
Joker bowling bags
Similarly, an April viral promotion via the website
clowntravelagency.com directed people to bowling-alley lockers throughout the U.S. and in cities around the world. Those who got there first discovered limited-edition Joker bowlingball bags containing a ball with a telephone number scratched into it and, again, a Nokia phone with a note saying to call the number immediately.
A report in the New York Post about Mattel's Joker action figures 'flying off the shelves' at a local Toys 'R' Us was pooh-poohed by retail and manufacturing executives as having ignored several key facts.
"While hundreds are playing, millions are watching," said an executive involved with the marketing of the film. The contests and the brand of the phone were widely covered, dissected and discussed on movie websites and local media.