Hollywood @ MindSay

The ‘Coin Killer Game’ is an interactive solution to a viral marketing challenge posed by most anticipated release of 2007, the new Coen brothers movie, No Country for Old Men.

This attraction is being hailed as the best piece of filmmaking ever evidenced by the cinematic siblings - its certain to be a ‘must-see’ movie for millions of devoted fans. In this film, a compressed air tank welding villain played by Javier Bardem asks a gas station attendant ‘How much have you ever wagered in a coin toss?’. The same dialogue has been preserved online in the opening frames of the Coin Killer Game.   

 After uploading a personal photo, each visitor must click the ‘flip this coin’ prompt and watch as an American quarter rotates up above the banner, where it disappears… The user is asked to chose ‘Heads or Tails?’

This exciting challenge ends with each visitor ultimately losing the match, and then watching in horror as his or her personal photo becomes a ‘death portrait’.

The game imagines the player's death portrait and simulates what each face would look like after being struck by the villain’s signature weapon. Check out the author’s own face after the gruesome attack.

The Coin Killer Game is the next evolution of online marketing; already a facebook widget, this application is almost certain to convey tens of thousands of unique viewers to the No Country for Old Men site before the campaign ends in late November. 

By Samantha L. Quigley

American Forces Press Service

July 22, 2008 - After matching servicemembers re-entering the civilian work force with military friendly employers, "Hire a Hero" is stepping outside its box and trying some matchmaking of a different kind. The troop-support organization has teamed with Dreamworks Television and Mark Burnett Productions to help two deserving military couples have their dream weddings. The gesture is a thank you for their service and commitment to the country, according to the Hire a Hero Web site.

"Providing something like this is just great," said Rob Barr, a Hire a Hero representative. "It's showing support for the troops, and it's kind of giving them hope that there are really people out there that care."

The next step to helping two couples live happily ever after begins at the Hire a Hero Web site. military couples who plan on marrying later this year can fill out the entry and share the challenges they've faced while trying to plan a wedding with at least one spouse serving their country.

Just the distance during a deployment, for example, can make things nearly impossible, Barr said. Then the occasional tour extension crops up and completely undoes what the couple may have managed to get done.

"Little things like that," he said. "But they're also looking for military spouses that just said, 'OK. You know what? We're going to go to the courthouse, get married and have a wedding later.'"

Once the midnight July 28 entry deadline passes, it's all up to the Hollywood folks to choose the two lucky couples for the big "Wedding Day" program that will air on a major TV network this fall, Barr said, adding that he has no idea what's in store for the couples chosen.

"They're kind of keeping that top secret information," he said. "All I was told was that they're going to get ... to have their dream wedding."

Barr said he thinks Hire a Hero was approached to help find couples because of the group's involvement with helping former "Apprentice" winner Kelly Perdew find applicants to be his assistant.

"To my knowledge, I think they got our information from someone ... who said, 'Hey, use "Hire a Hero" to look for this kind of person,'" he said.

Hire a Hero is a supporter of America Supports You, a Defense Department program connecting citizens and companies with servicemembers and their families serving at home and abroad.