Koi UFO Video 003: Siberian "UFO" / giant video
[DEBUNKED] Koi UFO Video 003 is a video that has been posted online with captions claiming that it shows scientists examining a UFO and being buried in snow.
This video generated a lot of discussion back in 2005-2007. It still gathers considerable numbers of views on Youtube.
In fact, as detailed below, the video was part of an award-winning viral advertising campaign for a Sony Playstation game ("Shadow of the Colossus").
One copy of the video on Youtube (with the title "Siberian UFO") posted relatively recently (in 2011) has over 2 million views as at September 2014. The true source of the video had in fact been revealed several years before that copy had even been posted.
Ufology often provides illustrations of people not letting facts get in the way of a good story!
Sections below:
2. Stories and claims relating to this video
3. The real background to this video
4. Relevant online discussions
1. The relevant video
The video has the website address "www.arkadysimkin.pl" plastered prominently on the top of the footage. It appears to show people getting off a helicopter to examine a UFO partially buried in snow.
Screenshots from the video are shown below for ease of identification.
2. Stories and claims relating to this video
The text accompanying the above copy of the video posted in 2011 is typical of the story that has accompanied this video since 2005 : "On October 15, 2005, a group of explorers claim to have discovered the ruins of an alien spaceship and the skeleton of an unknown humanoid species, all documented with a video camera. Color film shot on video tape in Ostrov Viner-Neyshtadt (Siberia) of a crashed UFO (or, flying saucer) and humanoid person found in the ice".
3. The real background to this video
The video was part of an award-winning viral advertising campaign for a Sony Playstation game ("Shadow of the Colossus").
An advertising campaign for the Sony PlayStation game "Shadow of the Colossus" by a company called "Tequila" won that company the Sweepstakes Bowl at the 40th annual Belding Awards. (The Belding Awards are awarded by the Advertising Club of Los Angeles for the best advertising creative work in Southern California). According to a press release relating to those awards, this was the first time an interactive campaign had won this award.
A number of other websites relating to the advertising industry include an article on the AdWeek website referring to this marketing campaign as the best-known work of Doug Speidel, formerly ecd at Tequila.
It is easy to understand why the advertising campaign award. It was an intricate campaign involving inter-related blogs, websites, podcasts, documents, images and videos.
A considerable amount of detail of that advertising campaign is given on the Team Ico wiki, dveloped by Team Ico (a video game development team for Sony Computer Entertainment, led by Fumito Ueda).
The introduction on the Team Ico Wiki states that "Before Shadow of the Colossus was released in North America and Japan in late October 2005, Sony launched an unexpected and thorough viral marketing campaign to promote the game. ... The campaign was a huge success. Its fictional characters were offered book deals, research assistance and interview requests; its hoaxes were talked about by not only thousands of forums but also prominent radio and talk shows. In total, the campaign was viewed by approximately 25 million people from over 110 countries".
The viral marketing campaign centred around a blog called "Giantology", set up by a fictional character called "Eric Belson". In October 2005, Belson began to post media and information concerning five very unusual finds throughout the world - all of them involving five of the game's sixteen "colossi".
The Siberian "UFO" video was first posted on the Giantology blog on 21 October 2005. That video prominently referred to the website address "www.arkadysimkin.pl".
"Arkady Simkin" was another fictional character created as part of the advertising campaign. Arkady Simkin's website suggested that he was a geologist that had supposedly travelled to Siberia on an expedition for oil. He claimed to have found instead was a colossus: a half-frozen ice giant he referred to as "Taurus Major". The Arkady Simkin website included the Siberian "UFO" video and, in a hidden directory accessible by inputting the password "polaricegiant", what looked to be a 3D scan of the corpse, and a picture of a cave painting depicting men hunting the colossus.
Various players of the game quickly observed on social media in 2005-2006 that the images on the Arkady Simkin resembled the second colossus in "Shadow of the Colossus", noting the remarkable coincidence that the creators of that game referred to that colossus as " "Taurus Major" (in addition to using the nickname of "Quadratus"). A considerable number of players of the game posted on various discussion forums that they suspected a viral marketing campaign.
Relevant early posts included the following post dated 26 October 2005 on Cryptozoology.com.
As more of the videos were posted on the Giantology blog, an increasing number of people expressing the conclusion on discussion forums, Wikipedia and elsewhere that this was viral marketing campaign increased.
The other videos in the advertising campaign included a fictional news report of the colossus Valus being uncovered by a tsunami.
Since 2005-2006, the game and relevant websites have somewhat faded from memory. The Siberian "UFO" video has therefore enjoyed a second burst of life. For example, another copy of the video was posted on Youtube in 2011 and has since gained over 2 million views - with very few of the comments on Youtube referring to "Shadow of the Colossus" or the details of viral marketing campaign for that game.
The fact that websites associated with the Sony Playstation now set out the steps in the viral advertising campaign in some detail has had little impact on many discussions of the video.
4. Relevant online discussions
Relevant discussions on the AboveTopSecret.com forum include the following:
2005 (November) discussion entitled "Sony's press release does NOT mention this as part of its VIRAL..."
2005 (December) discussion entitled "New Viral Marketing / Critter.... or maybe its real..."
2005 (December) discussion entitled "What the heck is this stuff about Colossi?"
2005 (December) discussion entitled "whats the story with the colossus"
2006 (January) discussion entitled "Sulu Sea Giant - Expert take on the discovery"
2006 (January) discussion entitled "Killing the Colossus"
2006 (January) discussion entitled "New Video I haven't seen on ATS before!"
2006 (January) discussion entitled "polar ice team find remains of a huge hybrid animal -- personal website and video"
Discussions on other websites include:
A discussion in 2005 on the Cryptozoology.com forums:
http://www.cryptozoology.com/forum/topic_view_thread.php?tid=25&pid=297130
A discussion in 2005 on the Cryptozoology.com forums:
http://www.cryptozoology.com/forum/topic_view_thread.php?tid=25&pid=297130
A lengthy discussion in 2005 on the "Unfiction" forum on Alternate Reality Gaming ("ARG"):
http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12714&sid=2bb7817c0b38fae70997d5c94b54bbc8
