Perhaps you were recovering from the violent shock ending, or maybe you TiVo'd through the commercials at high speed. In either case, you might have missed it: an odd commercial near the end of Wednesday's Lost episode.
The commercial, for a fictitious organization called The Hanso Foundation, marked the beginning of The Lost Experience, a massive worldwide game with online, mobile, and televised components.
Fans of the show already know The Hanso Foundation is the entity which is responsible for much of what is happening on the island. The foundation produced the infamous 16mm film reel found in the hatch and watched endlessly by Locke, and it sponsored "The Dharma Intiative," an unknown experiment the logo of which is plastered all over the food the castaways keep finding.
The commercial that was televised Wednesday featured some enigmatic visuals of a DNA helix, the ocean, and a grainy image of Alvar Hanso, the founder of the Hanso Foundation, as well as a phone number, 877.HANSORG, and a Web address for The Hanso Foundation.
The phone number perfectly replicates a company voice mail where callers get "lost" in a perpetual robot voice loop. Listen carefully to the general information line and then hear what sounds like a foreign language--or gibberish--punctuated by "(Joshua?) Jackson."
Alvar Hanso's outgoing voice greeting ends with an unknown female voice saying "Where is Alvar Hanso? What have you done with him?" Many of the outgoing messages end with the phrase, "Namaste."
The Web site extols The Hanso Foundation's 105 year old orangutan, Joop. The primate is part of what is called The Life Extension Project and was "harvested" by British explorers in 1900.
Elsewhere on the site, The Institue for Genomic Advancement discusses curing disease and birth defects and features a chest X-ray of a person infected with an unknown disease. The X-ray is similar to those of the series character Rose, who was diagnosed with lung cancer and given only a few months to live until the island seemed to heal her.
Also on the site is a press release, dated 05/06/06, saying that the site has been experiencing a "disruption," but that the user database was not compromised.
What are your theories? Sound off!
Comments (68)
I meant that stupid website. Not this one.
This stupid website brought me from advid fan to not even a little bit addicted. It freaked me out.
What was the commercial last night? I missed it! Was there a website?
http://thehansofoundation.org/press/extra/<br />
uploads/paris/legalmiller_final.pdf<br />
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http://www.hyperionbooks.com/titlepage.asp?<br />
ISBN=1401302769<br />
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incomplete links posted prev..
http://thehansofoundation.org/press/extra/uploads/paris/legalmiller_final.pdf<br />
<br />
http://www.hyperionbooks.com/titlepage.asp?ISBN=1401302769<br />
<br />
Stuff hidden in the site
http://thehansofoundation.org/press/extra/uploads/paris/legalmiller_final.pdf<br />
<br />
http://www.hyperionbooks.com/titlepage.asp?ISBN=1401302769<br />
<br />
Stuff hidden in the site..
Does anyone know the login name at the bottom of the Hanso page?
Does anyone know the login name at the bottom of the Hanso page??
Go On Alvar Hanso's Biography<br />
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Click on October 28 2003 next to his picture. Follow the links...<br />
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What does this mean?<br />
you need to insert the new code on the text box that appears on Dr Mittelwerk's executive bio page - it then gives you some inside information on the Doctor! Curious stuff!
you need to insert the new code on the text box that appears on Dr Mittelwerk's executive bio page - it then gives you some inside information on the Doctor! Curious stuff!
This is soo cool and an interactive way to get into the T.V. Show!
after going on that new site, i got the code to be 'heir apparent', and then there is an invisible link thing straight to the executive bios screen on the original hansofoundation.org site, and could this be the password or login name for the board of directors that we cant see yet??
Not sure if anyone noticed it (or maybe I missed the post) but I kept linguering on the Board of Executives page and suddenly the timer stopped and formed a link to this page:<br />
http://www.sublymonal.com/<br />
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There you get a code. Does anyone know what to do with that?
I did the whole breakingstrain thing and I thought it was pretty cool. The only thing that would have made it cooler is if instead of Persephone saying "See you later," she'd said, "Be seeing you."
Has anyone noticed that on the World Map for the Worldwide Wellness and Prevention Development Programme page, you can click on an area between North and South America which appears to bring up a fourth Hanso location but with no information. The map points to the ocean - I think this is where the Lost Island is!
At least we can look forward to new stuff during the break. If you're an avid fan, here's one more thing to waste your time with :)
Questions may be supposivly close to being answered finnally by the season's finale yet this fake site and phone number will bring you from advid fan to completly addicted. Who is Hanso and what has happened to him? Who would want this on him? Is it"Joop"?!<br />
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Season 3 will dangle this in front of your face and enjoy as the mice try to find the cheese.
It said in Joop's Corner that Joop was experiment 626. I know this has NOTHING to do with LOST, but wasn't Stitch (from Disney's Lilo and Stitch) also knwon as experiment 626? Ha. I just found that a little odd. And humorous.
I think 'lost' as a whole is a revolutionary step in entertainment. This idea brings it even deeper.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namaste<br />
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This will link you to what Namaste means.
Commercials? how ?
I think its fun, this stuff adds to the excitement of the show for the hardcore fanbase.
They also showed an advert for "The Hanso Foundation" over here in the UK and I couldn't believe my eyes or ears. My Dad who was also watching it didn't know what the "Hanso Foundation" was until I told him. After reading this I know I don't have to phone up. But it also showed channel 4's symbol in the bottom and telling you how much it cost a minute which is like £1.50 ($2.75 approx a minute) so what's the point? Are they just trying to get more money for the show? I wouldn't have thought it'd would have to do something like this? Plus isn't it going to make a whole new bunch of money when the game comes out?
Namaste? I thought it was saying "Have a nice day." Namaste is a greeting from India that means both "hello" and "goodbye."
Hahahaha.... Its simple. Now all lost cult followers are forced to watch commercials. And if Lost is the number 1 rated show....... Can anybody say Superbowl commercial money?<br />
Pretty smart from the network. Now they should use some of that money to bring back the shows every network seems to cancel this year that was good. AND DONT GET ME STARTED WITH THAT!!!
Hahahaha.... Its simple. Now all lost cult followers are forced to watch commercials. And if Lost is the number 1 rated show....... Can anybody say Superbowl commercial money?<br />
Pretty smart from the network. Now they should use some of that money to bring back the shows every network seems to cancel this year that was good. AND DONT GET ME STARTED WITH THAT!!!
so they are avoiding death by punching the numbers
its actually negative reinforcement that would be causing the losties to punch the code in. <br />
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negative reinforcement is the conditioning of a subject (in this case, Locke) by way of removing an unpleasant stimulus (possible death) when a desired action is performed (punching in numbers).<br />
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This game just shows how much effort these people make to do the show. I am a hardcore fan of the show and will play this game for the rest of the summer.
I doubt that a large number of people gave up watching the show. This show gets better and better. If you don't like it i'm sure you won't be missed. Goodbye.
"He has not even been "rewarded" yet!"<br />
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How about the ability to walk again, Fiasco40?
I guess this is the Future of TV Entertainment/Marketing. It also helps to chain fans to the show. <br />
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Shure, not anyone likes to go online and check websites for more info/riddles about a show - but hey,- if you don't like it - don't do it. <br />
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I guess you can compare this to the blairwitch commercials back in the 90's, which proved the great impact on the audience and helped to create a great success.
First of all, he was speaking Danish. Second of all, he said something like, "As you wait, listen to the new album from Geronimo Jackson, Magna Carta." Then it played a song from that album.
I enjoy the show very much. I liked the basic premise anyway, but my curiosity was totally pegged by the reference to B.F. Skinner as one of the people involved in the Hanso Foundation. His name was casually mentioned in the list of scientists involved in the experiment. That totally blew my mind. To the uninformed, B.F. Skinner was a psychologist who found that animal behavior could be modified by exposure to "operant conditioning". Most of us have seen the films of rats running through a maze to be rewarded with a goodie at the successful completion of the maze. Or pushing on a lever to recieve a goodie. These were learned behaviors by the systematic rewarding of such. In "Lost", Locke is exemplifying a fine example of behavior modification by his insistense in typing the code into the computer every 108 minutes, or something "bad" will happen. He has not even been "rewarded" yet! He is taking on simple faith what was told to him by the fellow he replaced. (And by watching the film that mentions B.F. Skinner) I would have thought the doctor on the island would have picked up on this, but I guess he has other things on his mind. (i.e., not in the script) Anyway I think the whole thing is one big "Skinner Box" that is being run by the people who ran the "The Village" in the old "The Prisoner" tv series. Anyone interested in B.F. Skinner should read "About Behavorism" pub.1974, or "Beyond Freedom & Dignity" pub 1971moreless
Help!<br />
What is the next Quest?<br />
What is with the drawing on the monkey and the highlighted text in the letters?. But what now? The directors login?<br />
*yawn* I gave up watching the show after a couple of episodes. I have to assume that a large number of people did as well if they created a fake website and voicemail system to try to keep people interested...
I think its sweet, it gives you a chance to get deeper into the plot of the series in that typical lost kindda mystic way<br />
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PS the language spoken is danish<br />
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and yes im danish;)
I sent an email to Hugh McIntyre. Nothing came back :(<br />
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What's the login/password for the board of directos' page?
They found their racket,why y'all hatin'???
AWesome!!!?!
yea i also think it's awesome
A dieing TV series? Hardly. The Hanso website is just another clever way to get more people involved and talking about Lost. Besides, it's sweeps month.
They showed this ad on Thursday night (May 4) here in Australia during the episode "The Hunting Party". It wasn't part of a commercial break it came up between two scenes and it had an Australian 1800 phone number.
This the island map from the blast door:<br />
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http://lost.cubit.net/pics/2x17/blastDoorMap.jpg
I sent joop the message "Apes r gay" and it loaded the circles page.<br />
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From what I took from pausing Lost when Lok sees the blacklight drawings was that the circles represent the different bunkers and show some weird links between them and the middle ? circle.<br />
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I noticed the bottom circle must be their hatch as it depicted 2 enterances and had the swan logo next to it. And the top rightish one had the medical logo which looked like it was the one claire was taken to.<br />
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The letter isnt to Dr Jackson its to Dr Johnson btw
If I wasn't cultishly obsessed with the show Id say this is taking it to far. But i am so i think its brilliant and quite original.
Sounds like a cash-cow to me....
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it's a dying tv show trying to stay alive by holdin on to its only speciality left; which is the connections to the real life like the sites to the charlie's band and stuff.But the show is getting worse and worse each week.i wish they'd start writing good scripts like season one instead of all these monkey shit.
I noticed the site says the orangutan, Joop, is the "experiment 626", juste like Stitch in Disney's "Lilo and Stitch"...I thought that was funny although it may not be related !