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And is there really a MINI robot? If you're asking yourself this question you've either seen the booklet in a magazine recently or heard some noise about it from the web. Well the short answer is it's another creation of MINI's brilliant marketing team.
But you feel like you're missing some of the background story on you can get a nice summary from the 2 Walls Webzine. An excerpt:
'Men of Metal: Eyewitness Accounts of Humanoid Robots is a supposed book by Rowland Samuel. A 37-page “excerpt” fell out of my National Geographic Adventure magazine this month and I had the same contorted expression on my face that you probably have right now. I mean, after all, it sounds retarded – doesn’t it? “Eyewitness accounts of humanoid robots?” What in the world…?'
'But you know what? I got sucked in. I started to read this excerpt and I couldn’t put it down until I finished it. And when I finished it, I wanted to read the book. And in my Internet search for the book, I came across a lot of weird stuff – stuff that, in retrospect I realize, I was suppose to find. I fell for it. I bought the whole thing and followed the bread trail and all I can do is applaud the geniuses that contrived the whole marketing ploy.'
You can read the entire article here.
Update: The Truth Behind Men of Metal
<p>I'm really kind of dissapointed in MINI for this type of advertising. It's the same type of deal that Sega tried with the Beta-7 promotion last year. At least walking robots is a bit more 'fun' than Sega Stormtroopers, but still, what's next, another fake tourist campaign like Sony's?</p>
<p>I am also dissapointed to see this kind of ad campaign from the otherwise very brilliant marketing geniuses at Crispin, Porter + Bogusky (They are based right here in Miami, in case you don't know).</p>
<p>I have not read very good criticism of it either and it seems to me like the folks at Crispin, Porter need to take a break because their creativity is running out and they are getting clearly burnt out.</p>
<p>What does a robot has to do with MINI? I have no idea and have not been able to make the connection between the two.</p>
<p>My suggestion for Crispin Porter is to quitely and neatly scrape this campaign away and store it in the closet, not a very good idea.</p>
<p>Stick to what you know best….the fun, ingenious and taught provoking original MINI advertaising campaign that have won you so many awards and recognition here and abroad.</p>
<p>Let's think MINI not silly robots. Let NASA, MIT and the scientific community worry about those.</p>
<p>You sell cars, not science fiction androids.</p>
<p>It's not the first time BMW has done something like this. In the original, and i believe the second, BMW Films series there were a references, phone numbers etc… clues that would reveal more of the story as you followed them. Interesting and time consuming. Not necessarily good advertising for BMW, but interesting.</p>
<p>What does it all mean though Basil ?!? </p>
<p><a href="http://www.MINIDryvr.Textamerica.com" rel="nofollow ugc">http://www.MINIDryvr.Textamerica.com</a></p>
<p>At least with the BMW films, they didn't try to hide the fact that BMW was behind them…</p>
<p>BTW what MINI is doing (BMW has done in the past) is called “viral marketing”.</p>
<p>According to the co.uk WHOIS database, the domain r50rd.co.uk is registered to a David Mayhew from London. The name the author of r50rd.co.uk gives on the website is Colin Mayhew, which is kind of weird. </p>
<p>MINI.co.uk is registered to Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW). </p>
<p>If this is the work of MINI marketing, they're doing a great job of covering their tracks!</p>
<p>Lastest update on this hoax: <a href="http://www.2walls.com/antipop" rel="nofollow ugc">http://www.2walls.com/antipop</a><em>culture/men</em>of_metal2.asp</p>
<p>I read the excerpt too and it's too bad there probably isn't a real book on it. I saw the videos with the robot and it looks kinda Hollywoodish. I bet Rowland Samuel and Colin Mayhew all work for the MINI company. I can't believe they would do this.</p>
<p>I think this is fun. I ordered one of the robots from miniusa website that is the same color scheme as my MINI. It came with a neat little book that carries on the hoax, with reference to the websites.
I love stuff like this!</p>
<p>i own a MCS and i collect robots. so this little viral marketing works for me. i heard through the grape vine that takara/hasbro (owners of the tarnsformers toys) orginaly wanted to create a transformers figure out of the BMW MINI. but when BMW pulled the plug on it (i guess i know why now), that toy was scrapped..=(</p>
<p>louis</p>