The ‘10 Cloverfield Lane’ Viral Marketing Just Kicked Into High Gear

Hidden web sites? Scrambled codes? Secret passwords? If that sounds like a J.J. Abrams viral marketing campaign to you, you win a prize. We told you last month that the viral campaign for 10 Cloverfield Lane had quietly started, but following the new ad that ran during the Super Bowl, things have considerably gotten more excited. Ready to fall down the rabbit hole? Here we go…

The Tagruato Corporation is a fake company used during the original Cloverfield viral marketing. The company’s official web site has since been relaunched with new information, including a new Employee of the Month page. One of those employees looks an awful lot like John Goodman, one of the stars of 10 Cloverfield Lane.

As you can see Goodman’s character, Howard Stambler, is wearing a t-shirt that says “Radioman 70” and if you visit radioman70.com, you’re redirected to funandprettythings.com. There are a series of seemingly random images. One of them is the alphabet with a bunch of missing letters. Those missing letters spell out MEGAN. If you look at the HTML code of that page, you find this hidden message:

You do not belong here.
Megan would never come here.
I know who you are and will be tracking you.

Only one of the images on the home page of that site is clickable, and it’s the screenshot from Pretty in Pink where Molly Ringwald is sitting at the computer. If you remember that scene from the movie, she types “Do you want to talk?” When you click on that image you are prompted for a passcode and if you enter “Do you want to talk?” you get this message from “Radioman70”:

DEAR MEGAN,

I HOPE THAT YOU CAN SEE THIS NOW. IVE BEEN TRYING TO EMAIL YOU AND CALL YOU, BUT YOU HAVEN’T ANSWERED. IT’S OK, I FIGURED OUT WHY – YOUR MOTHER IS BLOCKING MY EMAIL, AND SHE MADE YOU CHANGE YOUR NUMBER. I FORGIVE YOU, IT’S NOT YORU FAULT.

I’M SORRY ABOUT HAVING TO DECEIVE YOU WITH THIS SITE, BUT I NEEDED TO FIND A WAY AROUND YOUR MOTHER’S INTERFERENCE, AND WERE RUNNING OUT OF TIME. NOW WE CAN TALK IN CONFIDENCE WITHOUT HER FINDING OUT. IT’LL BE OUR LITTLE SECRET.

I NEVER WANTED YOU TO HAVE TO LEARN ABOUT SOME OF THE THINGS THAT I KNOW BUT IT’S A FATHER’S JOB TO PROTECT HIS DAUGHTER, AND I NEED TO PROTECT YOU NOW. YOUR MOTHER NEVER LISTENED TO ME. THERE WERE THINGS I SAW, IN THE NAVY, THINGS THE SOVIET’S WERE INVOLVED WITH. SHE DIDN’T BELIEVE ME. BUT SHE WILL. EVERYBODY WILL.

DO YOU REMEMBER HOW EVERYBODY THOUGHT THE WHOLE WORLD WAS GOING TO END WHEN IT TURNED 2000, AND I BUILT US THAT LITTLE BOMB SHELTER OUT BACK? I DON’T KNOW WHAT I WAS THINKING – THAT TINY PLACE WOULD HAVE LASTED US ABOUT A WEEK, ESPECIALLY WITH HOW MUCH YOUR MOTHER COMPLAINED ABOUT IT, NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES I TRIED TO MAKE HER HAPPY.

SO THIS TIME, I DID IT RIGHT FROM THE START. IT’S HUGE, SO MUCH BIGGER THAN WHAT YOU PROBABLY REMEMBER! BUT COZY! AND I FILLED IT WITH EVERYTHING YOU LIKE! WE’LL BE SAFE DOWN THERE, HOPEFULLY FOR YEARS IF WE NEED TO. BUT I NEED YOU TO COME TO ME AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. THEY MAY ATTACK ANY DAY NOW, SO THERE’S NO TIME TO WASTE.

I UNDERSTAND IT MAY BE HARD FOR YOU TO GET TO ME, OR THAT THERE MIGHT NOT BE ENOUGH TIME. SO I HAD ANOTHER SAFE PLACE BUILT – JUST FOR YOU. IT’S NOT QUITE AS BIG OR NICE AS THE ONE HERE, BUT IT WILL KEEP YOU SAFE. IT’S BEEN EXPENSIVE TO BUILD, ESPECIALLY SINCE I CAN’T BE THERE WATCHING OVER THE PEOPLE I HIRED AND MAKE SURE THEY DO IT RIGHT. BUT I’M PAYING THEM ENOUGH THAT THEY BETTER. BUT NO PRICE IS TOO HIGH FOR YOU. AND IT’S NOT LIKE MONEY’S GONNA BE GOOD FOR MUCH LONGER. IT’S RIGHT NEAR YOU IN CHICAGO – DO YOU REMEMEBER YOUR GRANDMA’S OLD HOUSE NEAR THE HIGHWAY? IT’S IN THE EMPTY LOT RIGHT BEHIND THERE. IT’LL BE FINISHED ANY DAY NOW. AS SOON AS IT IS, I NEED YOU TO GET INTO IT AND LOCK THE DOORS BEHIND YOU.

EVEN IF YOUR MOTHER IS WATCHING CLOSELY AND YOU CAN’T REPLY, KEEP CHECKING THIS SITE AND I WILL HELP YOU PREPARE AS MUCH AS I CAN.

I LOVE YOU, RADIOGIRL. I JUST WANT YOU TO BE SAFE.

LOVE,

DAD

There’s a chat box below that message and if you attempt to talk back, you’re asked “Is this Megan?” If you click YES, it asks you, “What was the secret gift I gave you on your 13th birthday?” And…that’s pretty much where we stand right now. The internet has yet to figure out this next part of the puzzle, but people are actively searching the internet for Megan Stamblers to see if there’s any hint as to what her birthday present might be and what, if anything, this all has to do with the Cloverfield monster.

There’s a lot more and if you have the time you should follow along at either Cloverfield Clues or the official subreddit.