There was an episode of ‘The Office’ a couple of years ago where Jim and Pam head to Dwight’s Pennsylvania beet farm for a relaxing weekend of agrotourism. Ha ha. It was funny, back in 2007 when ‘Money’ aired. Apparently some NBC folks asked TripAdvisor to post a review of the establishment back then, and since the episode aired some 643 people have added to it. It’s what they call an Easter egg.
It’s not unlike the egg left on Kayak.com for LOST fans. A few months back, the air-travel site buried a flight on the fictional ‘Oceanic Airlines’ from Sydney, Australia to LAX.
The reviews are by far the interesting aspect of the experiment. Similar to the Three Wolf Moon t-shirt that made the rounds six-months ago, users pretended like they have spent a weekend at Schrute Farms basking in the warm sun as they harvest beets and perform other totally boring tasks.
Lesson: find a way to put your product on the internet. It is sure to be a success, but not until it is ironic or otherwise noteworthy, so probably not for a long time.
Via PopEater