Solving the Sasha Fierce “Mystery”

Remember earlier this year, when scribbled "HAHAs" started appearing on stray sites, and people (except fanboys) started wondering why? Then word broke out that this was a viral marketing campaign for a movie called The Dark Knight, and these promo sites would drop the occasional goodie -- like images of Heath Ledger dressed as The Joker -- building oodles of anticipation leading up to the film's release. It kinda worked. Imitators, out of the woodwork you come. "Who is Sasha Fierce?", asks a mysterious new website, mysteriously called whoissashafierce.com. Then they ask you to take a guess -- text in your answer, or better yet, call! There's a prize in it for you if you guess right. Well, I know who Sasha Fierce is, because it's like, the worse kept secret in viral marketing.

In the old days, finding out who Sasha Fierce was would take intensive sleuthing. Interviews, a pipe, a magnifying glass. Instead, all I did was use Google. (Viral marketing can’t be too hard to penetrate, after all.) When her MySpace page appeared, I decided to click on it. Sasha has cleverly left it sans profile pic. The mystery deepens. The first thing that struck me was that she makes music in the genre of “R&B / Pop / Hip Hop.” The next step was to check out her influences, which are Music, Life, Love, Empowerment, Beauty, Passion, and Strength. All broad terms, assigning the mystery identity to just about anyone. My next step (and at this point I’m running out of them) is to check out the comments section. It’s there that I read things like “Thanks for the add, B,” “you and beyonce are my top friends ... love you B!! “, and “Beyonce just blew ur cover on 106 and Park! She is Sasha Fierce ... or u r Beyonce ... whatever!” And there it is. Try not to feel so disappointed.