It's impossible to know how much the viral campaign of "The Dark Knight" participated in the film's record-breaking box office numbers.  What is known is that it was undoubtedly the biggest viral marketing campaign ever for a major motion picture and that folks happily ate it up for about a year.

I'm conflicted about the whole thing.  There's nothing wrong with being excited about a movie and if a company wants to feed back into that excitement in order to sell that movie, then so be it.  But personally, campaigns of that length and depth are too much for me.  And how do you not get sci-trekked by schmucks out there who are pretending to be the "official" Alternate Reality Game when viral marketing is all about not looking official? 

Film School Rejects has a great video that takes a look at the phenomenon of "The Dark Knight's" viral campaign.  Here's a disturbing thought: viral marketing like this can only get bigger.  Let's see what happens when it comes time to whip the people into a frenzy for the next Batman film and you end up having to dig a telegram out of a cadaver.

You can check out the video below or click here to wonder how much this damn thing cost.