One thing that never makes sense to me is when companies register domains as a defensive move knowing that it will get type-in traffic. Then they do absolutely nothing down with the domain name.
Fortunately South Park creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, are smart with domains. At least for a recent South Park episode that aired on Comedy Central that aired recently called “Wieners Out”.
“Wieners Out” and TrollTrace.com
The domain in question is – TrollTrace.com – which is owned by Viacom International, the parent company of Comedy Central. South Park airs on Comedy Central.
The domain name was registered for the “Wieners Out” episode that aired on October 19th was TrollTrace.com.
From the short promo clip it seems the premise of the South Park episode is that Kyle's dad is a an “internet troll” that goes by the name SkankHut42. (An important note, the domain SkankHunt42.com is registered but not by Viacom. Not sure they care honeslty as that's a crappy domain name. :))
TrollTrace is a fictitious company that, well traces trolls. Watch the promo clip of the South Park episode “Wieners Out” to understand.
Internet Trolls – South Park
What did South Park and it's team do that was smart. Actually USE TrollTrace.com domain name. If you visit the website you'll be taken to a page that asks users to provide an email address.
The domain was used as a promotional way to remind people about when the episode would air on TV. It was a smart move by Comedy Central, Viacom, and the South Park team. I'm sure they realized people would be typing in the domain name once they saw it in the show.
I've pointed out how poorly companies will utilize domains they own, specifically the video game company TakeTwo interactive. For anyone that has played Grand Theft Auto 5 you might remember that in the game there you can use the internet on a mobile phone. There is a search engine called EyeFind.info. Because of Rockstar Games, which is owned by TakeTwo, edginess I assumed there would be a funny website on EyeFind.info. At the time I wrote the article it just went to an Apache configuration page. My thoughs, “Why don't they at least forward it to a website?” Many of the domains from Grand Theft Auto 5 did not resolve. How EyeFind.info and many of those domains redirect to RockStar games. Think they read my article? 🙂
South Park is known for being an show that pushes boundaries and is extremely current. Having an episode about internet trolls just before the presidential election was a good idea. The creators are able to push out shows in a week. This is unique in network television. The only similar show would be Saturday Night Live (SNL) but nowadays they run new shows every two weeks.
Also a fake Danish company called TrollTrace is a nice brand name, if it was real.
Recently the creators had to quickly change the ending of an episode that predicted Hillary Clinton would be the next President of the United States. Since Donald Trump was elected and will be sworn into office in January, South Park had only one day to change the episode. The shows airs on Wednesday nights and the election was on a Tuesday.
South Park is now currently in it's 20th season. Crazy to think that the show has been on for 20 years now.
Kudos to Matt Stone, Trey Parker, or someone on the South Park team for picking up TrollTrace.com and using it as good promotional tool for the epsidoe. Unsure why more companies and TV shows don't do this.
What are your thoughts about it? Do you think it was smart of South Park to use TrollTrace.com like it did? Have you ever typed in a domain name and been surprised like I was with Grand Theft Auto? How do you think people at companies should get the message that you should forward or use a domain name?
(Hat Tip – Chris Hydrick)
