How to Control the Nation – Derren Brown
So you think you’re an individual? Mentalist Derren Brown is aiming to show that we’re all saps on Friday night, claiming that you will be stuck to your sofa and unable to get up. This is following his recent stunt where he “predicted” the national lottery numbers.
Taking a look at Derren Brown’s search volume, I think the buzz around last weeks antics is starting to die off, but tomorrow he has another event planned called “How to control the nation”, which is sure to cause another spike, albeit I imagine a much smaller one (the graph below is dynamic, so if you reading this on Saturday 19th or after you may be able to see the spike):
So looking at Derren’s events so far, his stunt last week created a lot of buzz, but it has soon become yesterdays news – if he was to develop something more viral it could last as long as a year, although perhaps it wouldn’t get the same coverage…
Dave reckons that Derren Brown is going to pull the same stunt that Uri Geller used to do with people’s watches, where he managed to make them stop. Something to do with the power of crowds. Derren Brown is going to try and make everyone stay seated in their sofas – so Dave says he’s going to film himself getting up when Derren Brown tries to make you stay sat down. Hopefully this won’t backfire, like if he forgets to film it, or even worse – he can’t get up (not because of Derren Brown, but from cramp or his kids climbing on him or something unforeseen).
Anyways, it could all go a bit Pete Tong, like it did for Uri Geller on the Tonight Show when they didn’t let him use his own spoons!!!
Also, whilst researching this blog post, I’ve noticed Derren Brown has done a post on his blog about ARGs – which apparently stands for “Alternate Reality Game”. So it got me thinking about the websites he displayed in his TV advert:
Perhaps stucktomysofa.com is part of an ARG? I imagine a competition like an ARG can be an extremely effective form of viral marketing – does anyone have any experience of running one? If so I think your experiences could make a great guest post here on Davidnaylor.co.uk – the whole concept just sounds like great link bait to me 
Scott Mallinson 1342 days ago
http://www.scottmallinson.comIt could be argued that by Dave standing when Derren Brown commands him to sit, Derren is controlling him; anticonformity?
Ben Cook 1342 days ago
http://skitzzo.comARG’s can be fantastic link bait if you do them well. If done poorly though, they can be a BIG pain. The people that participate in them the most are very fanatical about them & will go rooting through all sorts of things you don’t expect them to get into.
You need to be very well prepared and plan it well in advance but again, if done well can be leveraged very well.
I was the webmaster of a site that ran an ARG for promotional purposes. It garnered a lot of attention but a lot of it was negative for not adhearing to the typical rules as well as the owner of the project getting greedy and trying to be way too self promotional.
This is a great idea though and there are several examples of very well run ARGs (LOST & a few other TV shows come to mind).
Becky 1341 days ago
http://www.beckynaylor.co.ukReally disappointed… didn’t get stuck at all. Did you see the subliminal suggested images flashing up of someone sat in a chair bound by ropes. I think the bit before the wierd images played while Derren was talking at the nation was the bit that actually worked, but I was catching up on tweets at that point. Might try to watch it over the weekend again and see what happens.
Scott Mallinson 1340 days ago
http://www.scottmallinson.comI didn’t get stuck either. He did say however that he wasn’t using subliminal messages just the power of suggestion. The minute-long video that he played to the audience looked like he wanted to hypnotise us more than trigger our sub-conscious, and hypnosis only works if you are prepared to let it.
I was sceptical of Derren Brown’s claims of controlling the nation, and maybe that’s why I didn’t get stuck. Whatever the reason, he’s a great showman.
Charlotte 1340 days ago
I saw the flashing images of a guy bound in a chair too. And just to check it, I went back and played it in slow motion (thank heavens for the gizmos on my freeview plus!) No matter how much he (or anyone else) denies it – I saw them clearly!
nick 1340 days ago
The subliminal message pics weren’t all that subliminal, everyone saw them. Possibly it’s still illegal to make them shorter. They were I think just a bit of red herring.
Darren went to my school apparently, a few years below me. No doubt it was his fault I failed my History a level, he made me fail! By the power of his mind!
Or it may have been the hangover I had on the day of the exam
Gareth James 1340 days ago
http://www.seo-doctor.co.uk/I was well and truly stuck, but then again it could have been the bottle of red wine
I do love his use of subliminal messages though, its so powerful. If you could use these somehow on a website…”link to me” – it would be fantantastic.
Juels 1336 days ago
http://www.aboutmotors.co.ukI didn’t catch the flash of the guy tied to a chair, I must have blinked, I did get stuck though! Everyone I know that did actually get stuck had been drinking, maybe alcohol has something to do with relaxing your mind and opening you up more to the power of suggestion.
The lottery one the week before was impressive but I can’t believe that 24 people can really predict the lottery numbers simply by looking at past lottery results!!
Derren Browned Himself 1221 days ago
Derren Brown’s games are complete bull, fake shit. He said he never uses actors but that is obviously untrue. Whoever believes this show is real must have a low IQ. I’m starting to wonder whether Brown’s show is a parody on the stupidity of the majority of humans.