12 Things Only Nine Inch Nails Fans Would Understand

3. We Destroy Mysterious Treasure Hunt Marketing Campaigns

Trent knows his audience. He knew that a crafty, complex alternate reality game - laden with cryptic clues, hidden meanings and a fat dollop of dramatised anti-government propaganda - would be the kind of marketing ploy that would have us in a fit of hysteria. So, in a flash of genius, 42 Entertainment was pulled in to whip up something special for the marketing of 2007s Year Zero; something that would have NIN fans across the globe chasing the proverbial white rabbit to solve all manner of riddles related to the expanded Year Zero metaverse. Oh, how we scurried, like excited little squirrels. From USB drives hidden in public toilets to distorted web addresses flashed in unexpected places, this was the perfect hype generator, because it had the NIN army fully mobilised. The prominent Ninternet (for that is how NIN-heads refer to their corner of the world wide web) hubs - particularly Echoing The Sound and The NIN Hotline - were ablaze with speculation and fervent discussion, scouring every piece of text, every poster, every soundbite for potential clues. We probably took it all far more seriously than we should have, but it was a riveting time to be a Nine Inch Nails fan. And the album was pretty good too.