Classic American clothing maker Stetson is capitalizing on the potential buzz it may get from featuring prominently in a new TV drama on the FX cable network, with an interactive game that sends players on a Web-based manhunt.
Launched last Friday, the game builds on the new FX series “Justified”, about a U.S. Marshal assigned to track fugitives in the hill country of eastern Kentucky. Visitors who go to the microsite can sign up to be deputized and take part in the pursuit of a fictional bank robber who held up two banks in Harlan County KY, the locale of the series.
Once enrolled, players track the bank robber by relating written clues displayed on their virtual work desk to an interactive map of the U.S. Guessing the right location of the most recent sighting unlocks video clips of the show and other hidden content. The game will offer 16 sightings, timed to appear every two or three days leading up to the TV show’s debut on March 16.
Each correct guess also gives the player one more entry into “Justified Pursuit: The Scavenger hunt Sweepstakes.” Grand prize in that sweepstakes is a $5,000 ‘bounty” and a $500 wardrobe from Stetson, including a hat, boots, jeans and a shirt. Three first prize winners will get the $500 Stetson wardrobe plus a $1,000 cash award. Winners will be chosen at random and notified on or about March 24. The game is being managed by agency The Promotional Edge.
One detail of note for would-be Wyatt Earps: According to the web site, registering to be deputized in the “Justified Pursuit” game “does not grant any privileges, rights, duties or obligations… with respect to the United States Marshals Service or to Harlan County.”
“Justified” stars Timothy Olyphant (formerly of HBO’s “Deadwood”) and was developed for TV by Sony Pictures Television and FX Productions, with the help of, among others, executive producer Michael Dinner (“Sons of Anarchy”) and novelist and screenwriter Elmore Leonard.
The Stetson brand was born in 1865 with the creation of the company’s first hat.
Network
