The difference between Lonelygirl15 and The Blair Witch Project

For all the stories written on The Blair Witch Project, and the marketing campaign in particular, it’s amazing how much misinformation is really out there.

I’ve decided it’s time to debunk all of these false assumptions and claims, but using projects happening now. When the media starts comparing Blair Witch’s marketing campaign to something, as they did with Snakes on a Plane, I’ll use that as an opportunity to get underneath the claims and talk about what was really going on. Well, today we have a big one — Lonelygirl15.

Now that we know who is behind Lonelygirl15, it’s time to respond to all the reporters and media comparing Lonelygirl15 to The Blair Witch Project.

It’s an easy comparison to make, considering the media (and advertising industry) at large have never really understood what TBWP campaign was really about, instead chalking it up to a simple “is it real/is it fake” debate. I mean, here’s an industry publication that actually claims we generated attention through “teaser clips.” In 1999 we were all on dial up, and hardly anyone could figure out how to get video to play online, but hey, it sounds good and makes the comparison more relevant to the story, right?

But one of many critical differences between Lonelygirl15 and TBWP is that the meta-mystery of TBWP, the “is it real or fake” question, was simply one layer of the story. An easy one to debunk, no less. Once you found out it wasn’t real, there was a central mystery of the story — “What happened to Heather, Mike, and Josh? Was it supernatural? Was it criminal? What does the found footage reveal?” When people walked out of the theater, these are the questions that fueled the debate, and the meta-questions mattered not.

Lonelygirl15, on the other hand, has lost all its mystery with the creators’ unmasking, and there’s nothing left in the story to grab onto and discuss. They let the “is it real” question dominate the dialog rather than the narrative they were spinning. I admire their resourcefulness and hope they can pull it together and reclaim the momentum they lost, but they are going to have to do it with good old fashioned storytelling, this time.