If you haven’t heard of PostSecret by now, check it out (oh and if you’re easily saddened, bring tissues). It’ll give you something to compare with HBO’s latest promotional tool, “Web of Secrets”, which allows fans to upload their secrets anonymously to a Web site associated with HBO’s Big Love.
The show’s campaign is called, “Everyone Has Something to Hide” and plays off the same heart-tugging reality that PostSecret branded years ago — we’re all full of darkness, and secrets, and getting them off your chest can be healing.
But where PostSecret has a cathartic effect on its readers (secrets can only be submitted on post cards, which are snail-mailed to the site’s creator — he posts the “best” ones each week), Web of Secrets is pure shill.
Created by Sarkissian Mason, the tool works as intended, except it’s associated to a TV show — a product — it’s fake. There’s something about sharing a secret electronically that doesn’t feel right. Technically, someone at HBO could track the secret back to its source. PostSecret avoids that problem with snail mail — making it a true secret-dumping place — you can let it go, forever, and not worry that it’s going to come back.
There’s something sickening about HBO using secrets to earn money. That’s the bottom line, right? That’s just one opinion, check it out for yourself. But if you have a real secret you want to get off your chest, send it to Frank at PostSecret — he does it for the art, the catharsis, the humanness of shedding one’s sins.
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