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How The Hunger Games Marketing is Funding A Small Island Government

by Elizabeth Giorgi | 4:16 pm, January 17th, 2012


Most people who have checked out The Hunger Games viral marketing site www.thecapitol.pn have probably registered in their mind that the “.pn” domain is meant to be a shortening of Panem, the country in which the books take place. However, do you know what the “.pn” domain is typically used for?

The “.pn” domain is owned and operated by the government of the Pitcairn Islands, a group of four small islands which are part of the British Overseas Territories.  The islands have been selling second-level domains, basically anything that isn’t gov.pn or education.pn, for quite a few years.

As of today, the marketers behind The Hunger Games have launched the following sites with the .pn domain:

However According to WhoIs*, they’ve also registered:

  • thehungergames.pn
  • katnisseverdeen.pn
  • peetamellark.com
  • galehawthorne.pn
  • effietrinket.pn
  • haymitchabernathy.pn
  • primroseeverdeen.pn
  • rue.pn
  • presidentsnow.pn
  • cinna.pn
  • katniss.pn
  • peeta.pn
  • prim.pn
  • gale.pn
  • effie.pn
  • haymitch.pn
  • thereaping.pn
  • panem.pn
  • theseam.pn
  • district1.pn and all other districts 2-13 (no district14.pn… sorry fan fic writers!)

The population of the Pitcairn Islands is 50, according to their government website. (http://www.government.pn/) Lionsgate has clearly registered one to two domains for every Pitcairn Islander!

To add to the hilarity of it all, the savvy marketing professionals at Lionsgate registered the domains as being property of “The Capitol, PN.”

After about an hour trolling through the .pn registrations, this list is nearly complete. Surprisingly, at the time of writing this, mockingjay.pn, catchingfire.pn and hungergames.pn hadn’t been registered.

Want to get a .pn domain? The Pitcairn Islands government charges a $100 per year fee and can be registered here. (http://www.government.pn/PnRegistry/PnRegistry.htm)

*For the uninitiated, WhoIs is the official database that stores users and owners of domain names, IP addresses and other Internet systems.

Elizabeth Giorgi is a writer and filmmaker from Minneapolis. She blogs about mixing life as a nerd with her career at beinggeekchic.com. In 2010, she was nominated for a Webby and won an Emmy for Science of Watchmen. Follow her on Twitter: @lizgiorgi

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  • http://twitter.com/GangyBluth Annie Bluth

    I actually really want to read this article, but I cannot see a damn thing because of the ads. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against ads, why shouldn’t you make a little money for your writing. But this current one only lets me read 2 lines at a time & scrolls with the page
    My current screen http://i39.tinypic.com/2eanqtw.png

  • Aly Light

    Is anyone else a little creeped out by all the things that App wants to do with your Facebook info? Like, e-mail you directly, and access your data when you’re not using the app? Rather like the Capitol, I suppose, but I’m really not into it.

  • Anonymous

    Yeah, let’s send funding to an island community with a long history of letting its men rape young teenaged girls! Good plan, everyone. I bet that will help a lot.

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