Well, that was anti-climactic. Despite the best efforts of some seriously dedicated followers of the ongoing “Iamamiwhoami” campaign (who tackled the codex I received last week in a creepy envelope from whomever is behind this whole thing), we’re still no closer to solving the mystery of perhaps the greatest viral effort of all time.
After taking a long look at the series of animals (owl, goat, whale, bee, llama — or is it an alpaca?!?! — and a monkey) “Iamami …” assembled on a slip of paper and mailed to me, one particular devotee believed she had figured the whole thing out: If you jumbled all the animal names together, it (sorta, kinda) phonetically sounded like “Go tell all will be 11 a.m. Mon.” It seemed like a decent solution, particularly since we had nothing else, so on Monday morning, everyone (myself included) headed over to “Iamami’s” YouTube page and began furiously hitting refresh. Eleven o’clock came and went, and, well, nothing happened.
So we’re back to square one. Clearly depressed by the lack of new developments, the commenters on YouTube have since turned their efforts to more salient topics like wild conspiracy theories and casual racism (good times!), but I haven’t abandoned all hope. In an effort to keep the ball rolling (and hopefully bring this thing to a conclusion — I’ve decided to round up the latest batch of “Iamami” rumors, analyze them, and, in some instances, totally debunk them. Read on if you’re in need of a fix.
Rumor #1: MTV Is Totally Behind This
This one is probably my fault. Immediately after I received the envelope from “Iamami,” I wrote about it on the YouTube page and promised a blog would be coming any second. That raised suspicions that I was somehow trying to advance the campaign along, and that, by proxy, MTV was responsible for the whole thing. And while I cannot vouch for every single person here — it’s a pretty big company, after all — I can say that I have not heard one single thing from anyone here about the campaign, nor have I sat in on a single strategy meeting. Does that mean that some guy in our IT department isn’t single-handedly running this whole thing in his free time? Sure, I guess. But it doesn’t seem like “Iamami” is part of our corporate strategy, at least not based on anything I know.
Rumor #2: Christina Aguilera Is Still Behind This
Despite her rep’s “100 percent” denying that Christina was somehow involved, rumors that this is all an elaborate viral campaign for her new album Bionic subsist. Her fans point to the similarities in both Aguilera’s and the muck-covered heroine’s teeth, and link to a brand-new, vaguely creepy site, ChristinaVIP.com, which popped up just as all this “Monday at 11 a.m.” stuff was picking up steam. And while I will admit that the teeth do look similar, I can say that Aguilera’s reps told me that the VIP site “is not affiliated with her,” and once again denied that she was involved in the campaign. So, you know, infer from that what you will.
Rumor #3: Amy Lee Is Totally Behind This
I’ve received emails about this. People point to a new interview the frontwoman of Evanescence gave to Spin in which she says the band’s new songs feature “no organic instruments” and are very much in “a Portishead or Massive Attack direction.” They also bring up the repeated use of the number six in the videos (six strawberries, six dogs, the fact that there have been six clips to date) and the fact that the letter “Y” seems to have taken on added significance in recent weeks (in the latest clip, it’s visible as a branch next to six graves, and our heroine does look directly into the camera and says either “Why” or “Y”). Amy Lee’s name is six letters long, and if you take “Y” and replace the sixth letter of “Iamami” with it, you get “I Am Amy.” Still, the Spin article says the new Evanescence album is due in September, and it’s hard to imagine any record label having the promotional budget — let alone the wherewithal — to launch a viral campaign for an album some 10 months before it’s due. I’m not buying.
Rumor #4: [Insert Name Of Artist] Is Totally Behind This?
Trent Reznor? Lady Gaga? Aphex Twin? Anyone else in the entire universe? At this point, who knows?
Who do you think is behind Iamamiwhoami? Let us know in the comments!
Read more here:
The Latest On Who (Or What) May Be Responsible For ‘Iamamiwhoami’
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