Through one of the smartest film promotions I’ve seen in awhile, Disney has already sold 500,000 advance tickets to its little nature doc-for-kids, Earth, by promising to plant a tree for each audience member who pays to see the film during its first week (starting tomorrow and ending Tuesday, April 28). Never mind that all those people could just plant a tree themselves, and that families may ultimately be disappointed to find the movie is less focused than the ads would have them believe (the “three animal families” narrative is often abandoned for a broader look at the planet’s ecosystems) –– the fact that Disney managed to come up with such a successful marketing gimmick, and incentive, that has no necessary web-related elements is extremely commendable in these mostly viral-campaign-obsessed times.

Of course, there’s nothing at all wrong with online movie marketing, and it’s worth pointing to another new film opening this week, Obsessed, which has a fun little gimmick utilizing personalizing technology we’ve seen in plenty of prior viral promotional tools. It may not help save the planet, but we actually had more fun making this video, in which we made Ali Larter seem to be obsessed with SpoutBlog editor Karina Longworth, than we did watching Disney’s Earth. Then again, we at least saw the documentary, primarily because of its promotion, yet we probably won’t be seeing the very banal-looking Obsessed.

Ignoring whether or not they were successful, we picked ten other favorite viral gimmicks, many of which were more enjoyable than the movies they promoted:

10. “Subterranean Homesick Blues” Messages, for I’m Not There (2007)

Technically this gimmick, which is like the Obsessed promotion, was tied to a Bob Dylan compilation, but the website was linked from the official I’m Not There site, so we’re counting it. Especially because it’s still a great way to send messages to a friend (here’s one we made today) a year and a half later. We’re not sure if this was the first of this kind of personalized viral video, but it’s certainly more versatile than the one for Step Brothers, which is nearly exact to the Obsessed one except that it’s even more gender-discriminatory.

9. Fox Encourages Online Ticketing, for Daredevil (2003)

We’re surprised that more films don’t utilize this type of promotional gimmick, which not only creates awareness for a title but also provides an incentive for seeing that particular movie in the theater. As a way to boost the already rising practice of buying tickets online, as well as to pad its list of promotional email subscribers, Fox developed a chain-letter-based sweepstakes in which moviegoers would be entered into a drawing after booking their tickets online and then passing a Flash-animated email onto others. Sure, it’s easier and cheaper to enter most movies’ sweepstakes, but it’s not as interactive. With better prizes offered and, more importantly, a better movie at the center of the campaign, similar gimmicks could be quite popular.

8. Fake Website Gets Attention of Stupid People, for Godsend (2004)

Seven years earlier, as part of the campaign for Gattaca, Sony placed fake ads in major newspapers around the country, which offered “Children made to order.” And many people called the phone number in the ad thinking its fictional corporation was in fact real. By 2004, such incorporation of fake companies in movie marketing could be found all over the internet, where the deceptive tools included extensive websites in addition to advertisements. The Manchurian Candidate, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, I, Robot and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind all had these fictional corporation sites that year, but the best (by which we mean most hilariously disturbing) was the one for Godsend, which offered to clone your child. Enough people thought it was real to either call the Godsend Institute to enlist their services or to participate in a petition to have the website shut down. Though it may have pissed off a lot of people on either side of the idiot fence, it was a great, controversy-driven way to promote the film, even if accidentally.

7. Oral Sex Game, for Running Scared (2006)

In another highly controversial gimmick, a NSFW game on the official website for Running Scared had a very shocking objective: get Paul Walker’s character to “find the G spot” while going down on his wife and pleasure her until she orgasms — a triumph alerted through the phrase “YEAH! Your wife just CAME her fucking brains out! (Now go wash your mouth out with booze).” Though it was made for mature audiences only, it obviously attracted complaints and the game was quickly shut down. We never got to play it, so we’re not sure how much fun it really was, but it sure gets a lot of points for audacity.

6. Personalized Phone Call from Samuel L. Jackson, for Snakes on a Plane (2006)

Similar to the personalized videos used for Step Brothers and Obsessed, the viral marketing of Snakes on a Plane included the opportunity to have a pre-recorded Samuel L. Jackson call you, or someone else (the name had to be common, though), that integrated mentions of the recipient’s profession, personal trait, interests and preferred mode of transportation into the message, in which the actor primarily talked up the movie. Following prior viral marketing for the film, which had already helped with creative choices such as title and rating before the thing was even finished production, this tool was yet another novel gimmick that cemented SoaP as one of the most significant web-marketed films ever.

5. “The Beast” game, for A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001)

Nowadays it seems every other blockbuster has some kind of interactive game used for promotional purposes (see #4), but “The Beast” was one of the first and most influential of these alternate reality games used to market a film. For some impatient users (such as ourselves), the multiple websites and complex puzzles were too difficult and time-consuming, but they were at least intriguing and novel. And later, easier games for such films as Swordfish, as well as less relevant followers, didn’t have the same fresh, innovative excitement to them. That is, until…

4. “Why So Serious?” game, for The Dark Knight (2008)

Considering how much Warner Bros. overdid its viral marketing for The Dark Knight, it was initially comparable to Snakes on a Plane and Cloverfield, neither of which lived up to their overreaching hype. But as we now know, it was a worthy film for the level of buzz it had. And while it seemed promotional alternate reality games were out of hand after some non-related games were mistakenly attributed to the marketing of Cloverfield, the “Why So Serious?” ARG for The Dark Knight was controlled and fun enough that it gave new life to the concept. Once again, we were too busy to stick with all the puzzles and game elements, but when we saw how many people were participating in the non-web aspects, we knew such gimmicks are only going to keep getting bigger and more interactive.

3. “Simpsonize Yourself,” for The Simpsons Movie (2007)

One of the most fun and time-wasting gimmicks of all time, this promotional tool allowed anyone to make him/herself into a Simpsons character. In fact, two years after the fact, we just got severely distracted attempting to turn a friend into a Matt Groening-style cartoon. This marketing tool might not have been as huge as the stunt that turned 7-11 stores into Quick-E-Marts, but it was (and still is) obviously the more entertaining gimmick.

2. Sweded Movies, for Be Kind Rewind (2008)

One of the few internet memes that was officially related to a film’s marketing, the concept of sweding is slightly controversial due to the issue with recreating copyrighted works. And after awhile, the meme lost its charm, especially after the Oscars seemed to pilfer the idea for an extensive recession gag. But while it was cool, it was really neat to see how creative some fans got with their cheaply produced versions of favorite films. For some really good ones, check out this site, or browse around YouTube.

1. Creation of a Myth, for The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Obviously, the most famous film to be marketed on the internet gets the top spot, but not simply because it was the earliest. The viral marketing for The Blair Witch was so innovative and influential that it includes elements that were aped in many of the gimmicks above. Certainly its mythology and intrigue partly gave way to the development of alternate reality game gimmicks, and certainly its ability to fool moviegoers is related to the fake company websites. Now it’s tough to see the film’s marketing strategy as a gimmick at all, because ten years later it’s basically the standard.