For those of you that do not live on the final earthly frontier that is The Internet (we pause as the echoes subside) as much I do, Charlie Frost was a fictional character in the 2009 film, 2012.

(By the way, I love that you can customise the size of YouTube players exactly)

Charlie Frost however ‘lived’ online, months before the film was even teased, as part of one of the best viral promotional extended experience campaigns I have ever been a part of.

Charlie Frost was a conspiracy theorist nut, in Yellowstone National Park, broadcasting his mad theories to the world, for their own preservation. I had the pleasure of ‘friending’ him on Facebook and being part of his escapades leading up to the premiere of the film.

Charlie Frost was a character, both an interesting personality and one within the film – something happens to Charlie in the film, and bam that’s it, even though the events in the film happen in the near future. Charlie ceases to be.

Now this is nothing serious I hear you say, but I disagree. I like Charlie, his fans and Facebook friends liked Charlie,

There are many more messages of people missing Charlie or annoyed that he “died”. People online who took part in the campaign, engaged with the character and the meta-narrative of the film, now miss this ‘person’ who has simply disappeared.

Now this may seem silly – lets just power through that just for a moment – but I think in some ways this is unethical, or at the very least impolite.

Studios spend vast sums of money, developing and deploying these masterful campaigns that succeed where many fail and draw the potential film viewer in. Drawing them deeper and deeper down a rabbit hole of their own making, into a world that they bring to life via numerous often ingenious methods.

Creating fake timelines, with enigmas wrapped in riddles all with a mysterious air that people engage with, they are ‘teased’ into the story. Snatching up every little bread crumb as they follow the path at increasingly breakneck pace. Demanding more, more more! Until the night of premiere arrives, they now know the meaning of all these clues, of the many paths that lead to this one night, to the stories, hints, clues, riddles, and the tattered shreds of evidence that Charlie has been dispensing, via the cunning masterful strokes of his cloaked puppet masters.

The excitement builds until the movie is released, unleashing the pent up excitement as a literal tidal wave.

And then. Nothing.

Charlie dies. Little grey bars go up all around the web, saying ever so politely “Part of the 2012 movie experience.”

After a journey of months, Charlie Frost is dead in minutes. No wake, no burial.

The overwhelming feeling I have is that the makers of these campaigns should be mindful of their respective wakes. With every effort made to make these campaigns more real, more immersive, there is I believe a very real danger in future campaigns creating a sense of loss or backlash at the loss of these characters or the feeling that one has been cheated, used or duped and then abandoned.

Now I am not trying to be over sentimental because i miss the Care Bears, I simply think that more consideration be put into the after effects of these campaigns.

Furthermore there is a whole community or following that is created and then completely ignored and abandoned when the movie is premiered. This is a whole lot of equity and effort that is abandoned or wasted. Goodwill that is used up and spat out.

Social media or social networking and viral marketing is not just another way to use and abuse the consumer, get them excited and then forget they exist the moment they do not represent and immediate financial gain.

R.I.P. Charlie Frost.

Comment Idea: There are more campaigns that terminate with similar abruptness, if you no of others please mention them or if better yet you know of campaigns that did not terminate like a misguided alcohol fuelled beer goggled one night stand, then please let me know.