'Where's Rogan?' Web Series Premiers on NYmag.com

Fashion Network TV, the news source in the alterworld of Where’s Rogan?, will give you the skinny, but on what exactly, it’s hard to tell.

Where’s Rogan?, a flashy production with a glossy sheen, premiered today on NYMag.com. Its Microsoft Silverlight-powered, time-coded product placement creates a rich consumer experience around a fictional story about Rogan Gregory, a celebrated fashion designer and CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award winner, who goes missing during Fashion Week in New York City (even though he’s white). Brands including Continental Airlines, Olay, and TRESemmé are placed throughout the show.

The “whodunit” series, which features Rogan’s real-life friends, associates, and fashion industry insiders, was shot during New York Fashion Week in September 2008. It will unfold with two new episodes each week for four weeks, with each episode running about three minutes long.

Hat Trick Media, which produced Where’s Rogan? for NYMag, has created an engaging, if somewhat hyperactive narrative and a rich experience surrounding it, but the alter-world fashion punditry can be difficult to follow. At it’s core, it seems the show (was created to) showcase(s) the quality and functionality of Silverlight which, I must admit, is very impressive.

From the press release: “For our team it was crucial to create an experience that people find novel, playful, and unexpected,” says Rob Veksler, Creative Director. “We developed a concept we hope will be an innovative and engaging four-week journey for the audience and sponsors.”

Does this mark the beginning of the internet video format war? Flash has an impressive start, but Silverlight will give the incumbent a run for its money with some pretty impressive features.

And Where’s Rogan? should find a respectable following akin, I’d imagine, to those indulging in the intellectualism of NonSociety.