What’s the Deal with Under the Dome, the Stephen King Project With a Cryptic Super Bowl Ad?

Find out what exactly is being advertised in this creepy spot

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJPDwIvR004]

Usually an advertisement comes right out and tells you what it wants you to do or buy. But in the case of one Super Bowl commercial that aired during last night’s game, the opposite was true. In a creepy and quick spot for Under the Dome, all we get is a glimpse at what looks like a New England town (served under glass), a graphic that suggests this has something to do with Stephen King—and a URL.

We won’t spoil for you exactly what happens if you follow the online directions, but the creepiness doesn’t end with the commercial spot. It’s a neat little trick to customize the ad to the user—though fans of Arcade Fire’s The Wilderness Downtown short film may not be quite as impressed as those who haven’t experienced the trick before.

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What we do know about Under the Dome is that it is a miniseries. It’s a CBS project that will begin airing on June 24 and is, according to Deadline, still casting (though Entertainment Weekly has the news that Britt Robertson, Natalie Martinez and Colin Ford are attached). The 13-episode series will be produced by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television— and, as anyone who has read the 2009 Stephen King book on which it’s based knows, takes place in a town that is suddenly  and mysteriously cut off from the world. Here’s the official synopsis:

UNDER THE DOME is the story of a small New England town that is suddenly and inexplicably sealed off from the rest of the world by an enormous transparent dome.  The town’s inhabitants must deal with surviving the post-apocalyptic conditions while searching for answers to what this barrier is, where it came from and if and when it will go away.

The book will also be rereleased this coming summer.