Vampires Were People Too

Props to my pops for passing on this bevy of digital bites for the new HBO series “True Blood,” coming to you from the same beautifully twisted minds that brought us “Six Feet Under.”

Thanks to a Japanese scientist’s invention of synthetic blood, vampires have progressed from legendary monsters to fellow citizens overnight. And while humans have been safely removed from the menu, many remain apprehensive about these creatures “coming out of the coffin.” Religious leaders and government officials around the world have chosen their sides, but in the small Louisiana town of Bon Temps, the jury is still out.

Local waitress Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), however, knows how it feels to be an outcast. “Cursed” with the ability to listen in on people’s thoughts, she’s also open-minded about the integration of vampires — particularly when it comes to Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), a handsome 173-year-old living up the road. But as Sookie is drawn into a series of mysteries surrounding Bill’s arrival in Bon Temps, that tolerance will be put to the test.

While the verdict is still out on the show (and I’ve been too busy to even muster up the time to set the DVR), I did manage to find a little time to surf the tangled web of microsites that are being used to promote the show…and was impressed by the creativity and smarts behind the effort.

Yes, there’s the requisite sweepstakes site. But then there’s the American Vampire League (dedicated to securing equal rights for vampires), the anti-vampire Fellowship of the Sun, a hilarious human/vampire dating site called LoveBitten (think eHarmony, but with fangs), and a spot-on liquor site parody called TruBeverage that’s complete with a “please enter the date you were turned” age gate that asks for a month, day and century. Tack on a consciously homespun blog/forum site called Bloodcopy and it would appear that HBO has covered all their digital bases.

As opposed to AMC and the painful lesson they learned with the recent Mad Men incident on Twitter, HBO seems to “get it” when it comes to not only digital promotion, but tapping into audience/fan engagement within the online social networking arena as well.

So what’s left to cover? Well, making sure that the show doesn’t suck will help.

(Pun intended, folks. Deal with it.)